P^i^'-rtJvi'^:; 


^ 


PRINCETON,  N.  J.  ^\ 


Shelf 


BX  8975  .M5  1892 
Miller,  A.  B. 

Doctrines  and  genius  of  the 
Cumberland  Presbyterian 


DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS 


OP  THE 


Cunikrlatti  Presljkiao  CkrcL 


-y 

By  Rev.  A.  B.  MILLER,  D.D.,  LL.D., 

President  of  Waynesburg  College,  Pennsylvania. 


NASHVILLE,  TENN. : 

Cumberland  Presbyterian  Pubi^ishing  House, 

1892. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1892,  by 

Thk  Board  of  Publication  of  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church, 

In  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


INTRODUCTION. 


"  He  that  entertains  himself  with  moral  or  religious  treatises  will  im- 
perceptibly advance  in  goodness." — Samuel  Johnson. 

"  I  have  gained  the  most  profit,  and  the  most  pleasure  also,  from  the 
books  which  have  made  me  think  the  most." — Guesses  at  Truth. 

To  one  of  the  world's  great  reformers,  equally  eminent  as  a 
preacher  and  as  a  theologian,  is  attributed  a  frequent  repeti- 
tion of  the  obvious  truth  that  "  only  a  reading  people  can  be  a 
growing  people."  The  Board  of  Publication  of  the  Cumberland 
Presbyterian  Church  has  acted  wisely  in  proposing  to  publish 
and  place  in  the  hands  of  our  people  a  series  of  good  books.  Of 
a  denomination  of  Christians  it  is  true,  as  of  the  individual 
Christian,  that  in  the  measure  in  which  it  reads  will  it  be  intelli- 
gent, free,  liberal,  and  progressive.  There  ma}'-  not  be  too  much 
reading  of  newspapers  and  other  transient  and  fragmentary  mat- 
ter, but  there  is  certainly  a  pernicious  tendency  among  Church 
members  to  neglect  the  reading  of  good  books ;  and  it  is  the 
writer's  ardent  wish  that  the  special  work  undertaken  hy  our 
board  may  have  a  salutary  influence  in  correcting  this  tendency. 

Though  this  work  has  been  furnished  in  response  to  a  request 
from  the  Board  of  Publication,  the  author  was  left  free  in  the 
selection  of  a  subject,  and  the  selection  was  determined  by  a  de- 
sire to  produce,  if  possible,  a  plain  and  thoughtful  book  that 
would  interest  and  profit  the  reader.  To  promote  growth  in 
grace,  to  enlarge  our  views  of  religious  life  and  duty,  and  to 
broaden  and  strengthen  the  foundations  of  our  Christian  char- 
acter, patient  reflection  on  the  great  Bible  themes  discussed  in 
this  book  have  a  potency  that  is  known  only  to  those  who  have 
experienced  it.     "All  graces,"  sa5's  a  thoughtful  writer,  "  begia 

(iii) 


iv  INTRODUCTORY. 

in  knowledge  and  are  increased  by  knowledge."  By  that 
patient  reflection  which  brings  truth  into  contact  with  the  soul, 
and  by  that  obedience  which  accepts  truth  as  the  law  of  our 
lives,  are  we  transformed  "from  glory  to  glory." 

To  some  of  our  readers  it  may  seem  that  too  little  attention 
has  been  given  to  the  support  of  our  positions  by  Scripture  ref- 
erences, but  it  has  been  our  aim  rather  to  show  the  reaso^iable- 
ness  of  the  fundamental  doctrines  accepted  by  all  Christians,  and 
of  the  doctrines  which  distinguish  us  as  a  denomination.  The- 
ology as  a  science  must  be,  if  true,  a  reasoned  correlation  of  the 
teachings  of  the  Bible  in  a  system  harmonious  in  all  its  parts. 
A  system  in  opposition  to  man's  reason  can  not  be  from  Him 
who  made  man,  and  such  a  sj^stem  man  must  ultimately  reject. 
For  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  sj'stem  we  claim  this  high  and 
final  sanction  of  reasonableyiess.  In  the  mother  Church,  because 
of  a  system  at  war  with  man's  consciousness  and  reason,  there 
is  unrest  from  center  to  circumference. 

To  "search  the  Scriptures"  is  the  surest  way  to  a  satisf^-ing 
faith  in  the  Scriptures  as  a  rule  of  moral  and  religious  practice 
whereby  human  life  may  realize  the  highest  possible  good,  and 
it  is  hoped  that,  on  this  broader  plane,  the  chapters  which  fol- 
low may  stimulate  to  more  extended  research  on  a  subject  so 
vitally  related  to  our  present  and  eternal  welfare. 

"  The  Christian  faith. 

Unlike  the  timorous  creeds  of  pagan  priest, 
Is  frank,  stands  forth  to  view,  inviting  all 
To  prove,  examine,  search,  investigate. 
And  gives,  herself,  a  light  to  see  her  by." 

The  author  aimed  at  a  faithful  statement  of  the  historical  and 
current  sense  in  which  the  Church  interprets  its  Confession  on 
the  subjects  herein  treated.  In  view  of  the  recent  discussions 
as  to  the  accepted  doctrine  of  the  Church  touching  the  Atone- 
ment, he  has  been  at  pains  to  ascertain  the  views  of  a  number  of 
the  older  ministers  of  the  body,  which  he  would  gladly  have 


INTRODUCTORY.  v 

cited  had  space  permitted.  The  brief  chapter  on  that  subject, 
which  is  rather  a  simple  statement  of  the  prevailing  view  of  our 
theologians  than  an  attempt  at  an  argument  in  support  of  the 
view  itself,  accords  thoroughly  with  the  views  collated  in  the 
manner  above  named. 

It  is  due  the  Board  of  Publication  that  it  be  here  stated  that 
the  responsibility  for  the  delay  of  the  appearance  of  this  work 
rests  wholly  with  the  writer,  and  he  takes  occasion  to  acknowl- 
edge the  patient  forbearance  of  the  board.  The  work  has  been 
written  in  such  brief  interv^als  as  could  be  so  appropriated  amid 
the  labors  incident  to  the  author's  relation  to  Waynesburg  Col- 
lege. As  it  was  begun,  so  it  is  now  finished  and  sent  forth  in 
hope  that  it  may  be  in  some  measure  a  useful  and  acceptable 
offering  to  the  Church  to  which  the  author  has  devoted  many 
years  of  labor.  A.  B.  MILI^ER. 

Waynesburg,  Pa,,  July  i6,  1892. 


CONTENTS. 


PART  I. 

CHAPTER  I. 
Reasons  for  the  Volume  Herein  Offered  to  the  Reading  Public,  .        i 

CHAPTER  11. 
Relation  of  Doctrine  to  Duty  and  Destiny, 5 

CHAPTER  in. 

Of  the  Scriptures  and  the  Progressive  Development  of  their  Mean- 
ing, and  the  Use  and  Abuse  of  Creeds, 9 

CHAPTER  IV. 
Some  Account  of  the  Leading  Creeds  of  the  Christian  World,    .        .      18 

CHAPTER  V. 
A  Fuller  Account  of  the  Origin  of  the  Westminster  Symbols,    .        .      35 


PART  II.— Doctrinal  Statement  and  Exposition. 

CHAPTER  L 
Of  the  Holy  Scriptures, 47 

CHAPTER  IL 
Of  the  Holy  Trinity, .      66 

CHAPTER  IIL 
Of  the  Decrees  of  God— A  General  View  of  the  Subject,    ...      93 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Decrees  in  the  Creeds  of  the  Churches, 116 

(vii) 


viii  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  V. 
Creation, i66 

CHAPTER  VI. 
Creation — Continued 193 

CHAPTER  VII. 
Providence, ....    220 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

The  Fall  of  Man— Effects  on  the  Original  Transgressors— Effects  on 

the  Race — The  Covenant  of  Grace,  etc.,        .        .        .        .        .     250 

CHAPTER  IX. 

Free  Will — The  Moral  Law — Moral   Government — Man's   Freedom 

Consistent  with  God's  Sovereignty, 273 

CHAPTER  X. 

Redemption  in  Relation  to  the  Heathen  and  Those  Incapable  of 

Faith, 285 

CHAPTER  XI. 
Sin— Atonement — Pardon — Restoration, 294 


PART  III. 

CHAPTER  XII. 
The  Genius  of  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church,  .        .        .    310 


CHAPTER  I. 

REASONS  FOR  THE  VOLUME  HEREIN  OFFERED  TO  THE 
READING  PUBI.IC. 

The  inquiry  after  truth  and  the  belief  of  truth  is  the  sovereign  good  of 
human  nature. — Bacon. 

^  I  "^HE  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church,  like  the  spiritual 
kingdom  of  which  it  is  a  humble  branch,  came  not  with 
imposing  display.  In  the  year  1810,  in  a  plain  rural  dwelling  in 
Dickson  county,  Tennessee,  it  was  instrumentally  set  up  by 
three  devoted  and  godly  ministers.  From  its  inception  until 
the  present,  its  course  has  been  a  remarkable  progress;  but  it 
has  gone  forward  with  silent  rather  than  with  resounding  steps. 
Its  ministers  have  been  laborious  toilers  in  the  field,  not  makers 
of  books.  Our  literature  is  notabl)^  meager,  and  has  no  circula- 
tion beyond  our  own  people.  Hence  it  is  not  a  just  ground  of 
wonder  or  complaint  that,  while  God  is  doubtless  our  father, 
other  branches  of  Abraham's  great  family  are  ignorant  of  us, 
and  that  the  writers  of  histories  in  Israel  acknowledge  us  not. 
As  a  denomination  we  have  been  singularly,  if  not  culpably, 
indifferent  to  the  obligation  to  bring  our  doctrines  and  our  work 
more  fully  before  the  Christian  public,  and  to  this  conviction, 
deep,  long  cherished,  and  intensified  by  many  facts  which  have 
come  to  the  personal  knowledge  of  the  author,  the  pages  which 
follow  are  to  be  attributed. 

"  I  suppose  your  Church  is  very  numerous  about  Cumber- 
land?" 

"Not  at  all,"  I  replied.     "  In  fact,  I  do  not  know  that  we  have 
a  congregation  in  the  State  of  Maryland." 

"Is  it  possible !     Why,  did  your  Church  not  originate  about 
Cumberland?" 

(i) 


2  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

"By  no  means — we  originated  in  Tennessee." 

"  How,  then,  did  you  get  your  name?  " 

This  fragment  of  a  conversation  with  a  minister  to  whom  I 
was  introduced  in  my  first  field  of  labor  indicates  not  only  that 
even  ministers  in  other  great  communions  know  but  little  of  us, 
but  also  that  it  is  a  disadvantage  to  wear  a  name  entirely  devoid 
of  significance  as  to  doctrine,  and  to  only  a  few  persons  indica- 
tive of  even  our  geographical  origin. 

In  illustration  of  the  erroneous  opinions  prevalent  in  respect 
to  our  doctrinal  views,  it  is  in  place  to  cite  a  passage  from  the 
Philosophy  of  Sectariajiism,  by  Rev.  Alexander  Elaikie,  of  Bos- 
ton. As  the  imprint  of  the  book  is  1855,  it  might  be  difi&cult  at 
this  date  to  ascertain  the  sources  of  his  information — if  he  had 
any.  Having  noticed  other  Presbj'terian  Churches,  he  proceeds 
to  say :  "  We  have  then  the  Cumberland  Presbyterians,  originat- 
ing from  the  irregular  conduct  of  a  Presbytery  of  that  name, 
which,  in  1803,  introduced  some  fatal  doctrinal  errors ;  and 
appealing  from  the  Synod  of  Kentucky,  to  which  it  had  been 
subordinate,  its  doings  were  condemned  in  18 10,  when  it  pro- 
claimed itself  an  independent  Church.  Not  only  holding  some 
tenets  gratifying  to  natural  men,  but  also  employing  in  its  min- 
istry men  of  a  less  acquaintance  with  science,  the  languages,  and 
theology,  than  other  portions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  it  has 
grown  rapidly." 

This  language  seems  to  indicate  that  its  author  believed  our 
rapid  growth  attributable  to  "some  fatal  doctrinal  errors," 
"  some  tenets  gratifying  to  natural  men,"  and  an  illiterate  min- 
istry, while  we  have  been  wont  to  attribute  it  to  the  I,ord's 
blessing  upon  a  faithful  exhibition  of  the  word  he  has  ordained 
as  the  "  infallible  rule  of  faith  and  practice ;  "  and  if  the  chapters 
that  follow  contribute  to  a  better  understanding,  on  the  part  of 
members  of  other  denominations,  of  our  faith  and  spirit,  one 
of  the  aims  in  their  preparation  will  have  been  secured. 

Unity  of  faith  is  at  once  a  powerful  bond,  a  condition  of  peace. 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH. 


3 


and  a  source  of  denominational  strength.  If  our  membership, 
now  exceeding  one  hundred  and  sixty  thousand,  can  be  more 
generally  enlisted  in  reading  plain  expositions  of  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  our  holy  religion,  most  valuable  results 
will  be  realized  in  a  higher  type  of  individual  Christian  life, 
and  in  our  enlarged  usefulness  as  a  Church.  To  this  end  it  is 
desirable  that  the  number  of  our  books  be  multiplied  as  speedily 
as  possible,  and  all  the  more  so  because  the  pulpit  ministrations 
of  to-day  are,  as  a  rule,  quite  barren  of  doctrinal  exposition. 

There  is  among  the  Churches  of  this  country  a  growing  dispo- 
sition to  lay  aside  those  strifes  over  doctrinal  differences  which 
in  the  past  have  occasioned  much  waste  of  energ)^  and  provoked 
feelings  quite  at  war  with  a  true  Christian  spirit.  If  now  these 
Churches  will  sit  down  to  the  task  of  an  impartial  examination 
of  one  another's  standards,  it  may  result  that  the  differences 
will  be  seen  to  be  so  much  fewer,  and  of  so  much  less  impor- 
tance than  they  were  hitherto  thought,  as  to  bring  about  kinder 
fraternal  sympathy,  and  helpful  adjustment  and  co-operation  in 
work,  among  numerous  branches  that  in  all  essential  doctrines 
have  a  like  precious  faith.  The  vast  work  now  challenging  the 
utmost  energies  of  the  Churches  of  America  seems  to  demand 
such  a  movement  as  will  most  efficiently  mass  their  forces 
against  the  common  foe,  and  we  are  confident  that,  in  the  event 
of  such  a  movement,  Cumberland  Presbyterians  will  be  ready 
for  what  seems  for  the  glory  of  the  Master  and  the  promotion 
of  his  kingdom. 

It  is  with  no  purpose  of  an  uncharitable  attack  upon  other 
creeds  that  this  exposition  of  our  own  is  sent  forth.  Compari- 
sons will  be  made,  to  show  differences  as  well  as  agreements; 
and  as  the  Confession  of  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church — 
as  indeed  the  Church  itself — is  a  protest  against  what  are  called 
the  severer  features  of  Calvinism,  to  note  specially  our  depart- 
ures from  the  Westminster  Confession  will  be  helpful  in  defining 
our  doctrinal  system.     The  earnest  debate  over  those  stern  feat- 


4  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

ures  of  Calvinism — at  this  very  hour  engaging  the  profoundest 
learning  and  logic  of  the  mother  Church — seems  to  render  the 
present  a  time  peculiarly  suitable  for  such  a  publication  as  is 
proposed,  since,  as  the  sequel  will  show,  the  vicious  theology 
now  so  perplexing  the  mother  Church  our  fathers  saw  and 
purged  away  at  the  beginning  of  the  century. 

Our  Church  owes  to  itself  and  the  public  a  manifest  obliga- 
tion to  aid  in  the  production  of  a  healthful  current  literature. 
With  its  2,776  congregations,  its  1,646  ordained  ministers,  its 
membership  of  163,216,  its  numerous  literary  institutions,  and 
its  theological  seminary,  the  Church  has  done  and  is  doing  com- 
paratively little  to  furnish  the  periodicals  and  books  demanded 
by  the  great  reading  public,  and  thus  comparatively  little  to 
shape  the  great  currents  of  contemporary  thought.  From  the 
whole  body,  therefore,  should  come  a  cordial  and  liberal  re- 
sponse to  the  important  step  on  the  part  of  our  Board  of  Publi- 
cation to  throw  upon  the  mind  of  the  Church  and  upon  the 
reading  public  generally  a  series  of  books  setting  forth  the  sys- 
tem of  doctrine  through  which  as  a  denomination  we  have 
received  singular  blessing  and  enlargement. 

For  reasons  herein  given,  and  for  more  general  ones  to  be 
stated  in  the  next  chapter,  when  recenth'  the  writer  was  re- 
quested by  the  Board  of  Publication  of  his  Church  to  contrib- 
ute a  volume  to  a  series  it  is  now  issuing,  the  subject  of  this 
effort  at  once  occurred  to  him  as  the  one  he  could  discuss  with 
the  most  hope  of  some  useful  service  to  the  cause  of  truth. 


CUMBERLrAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH. 


CHAPTER  II. 

REI.ATION   OF   DOCTRINE   TO   DUTY   AND   DESTINY. 

Ye  shall  know  the  truth,  and  the  truth  will  make  you  free. — ^Johnviii.  32. 

No  error  can  be  more  pernicious  or  more  absurd  than  that  which  repre- 
sents it  as  a  matter  of  but  little  consequence  what  a  man's  opinions  are  ; 
for  there  is  an  inseparable  connection  between  faith  and  practice,  truth 
and  holiness;  otherwise  it  would  be  of  no  consequence  to  discover  truth 
or  to  embrace  it.  Our  Savior  has  said,  "A  corrupt  tree  can  not  bring  forth 
good  fruit." — Introduction  to  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Confession  of 
Faith. 

God  and  truth  are  always  on  the  same  side. — Theo.  Parker. 

TN  strict  use  of  language,  one's  creed  is  that  which  he  be- 
lieves; his  doctrine,  that  which  he  teaches.  As  a  candid 
man's  teaching  is  also  his  belief,  "creed"  and  "doctrine"  are 
with  him  one  and  the  same  thing.  In  a  technical  sense  a  creed 
is  a  summary  of  Christian  belief.  The  creed,  or  confession  of 
faith,  of  a  Church  embodies  the  summary  of  principles  the 
Church  professes  to  believe  and  to  teach ;  and  hence  creed  and 
doctrine  may  be  used  as  S3monyms,  as  hereafter  in  these  pages. 
Zoroaster,  the  Persian  philosopher  and  the  founder  of  Parsee- 
ism,  is  credited  with  saying :  "  Taking  the  first  footstep  with  a 
good  thought,  the  second  with  a  good  word,  and  the  third  with 
a  good  deed,  I  entered  Paradise."  The  beginning  of  his  career 
vv^as  a  good  thought,  its  end  Paradise.  It  was  because  the  begin- 
ning was  a  good  thought  that  the  end  was  Paradise.  The  insep- 
arable connection  between  creed  and  conduct,  principle  and 
practice,  doctrine  and  destiny  is  solemnly  affirmed  by  conscious- 
ness, observation,  and  the  word  of  God.  "As  a  man  thinketh  in 
his  heart,  so  is  he."     "Ye  shall  know  the  truth,  and  the  truth 


6  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

shall  make  you  free,"  declared  the  Great  Teacher  who  came  to 
speak  to  the  world  the  words  which  the  Father  gave  to  him.  So 
far  as  a  creed  embodies  error,  be  it  a  social,  political,  moral,  or 
religious  creed,  it  will  be  vicious  in  its  issues.  Only  upon  truth 
can  rest  the  well-being  of  rational  creatures.  Only  out  of  truth 
can  come  the  harmony  of  the  universe.  Hence  the  vast  impor- 
tance and  the  responsibility,  whether  it  pertain  to  an  individual 
or  a  Church,  of  formulating  a  summary  of  principles  to  be 
believed,  practiced,  and  taught.  Believers  are  "  chosen  to  sal- 
vation, through  sanctification  of  the  Spirit  and  belief  of  the 
truth."  What  God  hath  joined  together  in  the  process  of  the 
soul's  salvation  let  us  be  careful  that  our  "creeds"  do  not  put 
asunder. 

In  every  soul  there  is  capacity  for  a  true  life — a  life  that  opens 
godward,  that  fits  its  possessor  for  the  presence  in  which  there 
is  fullness  of  joy.  How  is  that  susceptibility  awakened  into 
activity  in  the  true  spiritual  evolution  ?  Through  the  quicken- 
ing power  of  the  Spirit  it  is  made  capable  of  upward  impulses 
from  the  apprehension  of  the  truth,  but  these  initial  processes 
and  the  subsequent  daily  renev\-al  of  the  inner  man  are  in  har- 
mony with  psychological  laws.  The  soul,  spiritually  quickened, 
holding  under  survey  the  various  impulses  to  action,  chooses  as 
its  supreme  end,  because  of  a  perceived  obligation,  the  law  and 
the  service  of  its  God.  Truth  believed  begets  sense  of  obliga- 
tion, obligation  felt  begets  volition,  volition  issues  in  action, 
action  repeated  begets  habit,  habits  aggregated  constitute  char- 
acter, character  determines  destiny. 

But  the  soul  which  has  chosen  salvation  through  Christ,  and 
the  commandments  of  Christ  as  the  law  of  its  conduct,  starts 
upon  its  career  but  a  babe  in  Christ,  and  hence  needs  the  means 
of  developing,  strengthening,  training,  perfecting  its  powers. 
To  such  the  direction  is,  "  Desire  the  sincere  milk  of  the  word, 
that  you  may  grow  thereby."  For  such  Christ  prays  the  Father, 
"Sanctify  them  through  thy  truth;    thy  word  is  truth."     It  is 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  7 

truth  apprehended,  truth  received  by  faith,  truth  digested  by- 
reflection,  and  assimilated  by  daily  observance  as  a  principle  of 
action,  that  is  "  profitable  for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for  correction, 
for  instruction  in  righteousness,"  so  that  thereby  "  the  man  of 
God  may  be  perfect,  thoroughly  furnished  unto  all  good  works." 
Simply  to  believe  the  truth  is  not  enough.  Devils  believe,  but 
are  devils  still.  It  is  by  embracing  the  truth  as  good,  by  doing 
it,  by  looking  into  it  as  into  a  mirror,  that,  "beholding  therein 
the  glory  of  the  Lord,  we  are  changed  into  the  same  image,  from 
glory  to  glory,  even  as  by  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord."  "Divine 
truth  exerts  upon  the  mind,"  says  Caird,  "  at  once  a  restorative 
and  a  self-manifesting  power.  As  light  opens  the  close-shut 
flov/er-bud  to  receive  light,  so  the  truth  of  God,  shining  on  the 
soul,  quickens  and  stirs  into  activity  the  faculty  b}^  which  that 
very  truth  is  perceived." 

In  the  introduction  to  his  valuable  compend,  Theology  Con- 
densed, Rev.  T.  C.  Blake,  D.D.,  well  urges  that  theology  should 
be  taught  as  any  other  science  is  taught,  and  that  "  parents  owe 
it  to  themselves  and  to  their  children  to  have  in  their  own 
houses  such  helps  as  will  enable  them  and  their  offspring  to 
form  correct  conceptions  of  God  and  of  the  plan  of  salvation 
which  he  has  revealed."  In  this  effort  to  present  briefly  the 
relation  of  doctrinal  soundness  to  a  life  of  godliness  here,  and  tp 
man's  eternal  well-being  hereafter,  the  writer  must  record  his 
regret  that  on  the  part  of  professing  Christians  generally  there 
seems  to  be  so  little  disposition  to  read  and  ponder  works  setting 
forth  the  vital  truths  of  our  holy  religion.  Not  only  does  the 
study  of  moral  and  spiritual  truth  lay  the  granite  foundation  for 
that  character  which  infinitely  outvalues  all  perishable  treasure, 
it  also  imparts  the  strength,  piety,  stability,  and  vigorous  activity 
which  should  characterize  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ.  If 
"ignorance  is  the  curse  of  God,"  indifi"erence  to  the  truth  is  a 
paralysis  of  our  moral  and  spiritual  powers.  In  this  realm  of 
knowledge  especially  "  God  and  truth  are  alwavs  on  the  same 


8  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

side,"  and  that  truth  is  the  strait  gate  into  the  narrow  way  lead- 
ing up  to  heaven,  and  immortality,  and  God. 

Having  penned  the  paragraphs  of  this  chapter  in  hope  of  con- 
tributing something  to  awaken  interest  in  the  study  of  those 
words  which  are  pure  words,  as  silver  tried  in  a  furnace  of  earth, 
and  purified  seven  times,  the  writer  can  be  pardoned  for  record- 
ing his  grateful  recollection  that  in  his  youthful  days  Abbott's 
Coryier  Stone  of  Religious  Truth,  The  Pilgrim's  Progress,  The 
Saints'  Rest,  Nelson's  Cause  and  Cure  of  Infidelity,  and  other 
religious  works,  afforded  mental  food  which  he  devoured  with 
eager  relish,  when  "sensational  literature,"  which  had  already 
begun  to  teem  from  the  press,  and  has  since  become  multitudi- 
nous as  the  locusts  of  Eg3'pt,  was  either  unknown  to  him  or 
beyond  his  ability  to  procure. 

If  our  people  will  encourage  the  present  effort  of  the  Board 
of  Publication  to  engage  the  pens  of  the  Church  for  the  produc- 
tion of  a  sound  theological  literature,  the  result  will  be  most 
fruitful  of  good.  It  has  been  well  said  that  religion  is  subject- 
ive theology — the  exemplification  in  the  experience  and  the  life 
of  the  light  and  power  of  the  truths  of  religion  clearly  appre- 
hended, believed,  and  obeyed.  To  all  the  other  methods  of 
work  of  the  Christian  Church,  books  are  an  aid  of  the  greatest 
value,  in  their  religious  bearing  as  well  as  in  other  respects  justi- 
fying the  sentiment  of  Bartholin,  that  "  without  books  God  is 
silent,  justice  dormant,  science  at  a  stand,  philosophy  lame, 
letters  dumb,  and  all  things  involved  in  Cimmerian  darkness." 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH. 


CHAPTER  III. 

OF   THE  SCRIPTURES  AND  THE   PROGRESSIVE    DEVELOPMENT 

OF  THEIR   MEANING,    AND   THE   USE   AND 

ABUSE  OF  CREEDS. 

Truth  is  the  daughter  of  time. — Aulus  Gellius. 

^  I  "^HE  volume  received  as  the  word  of  God  is  made  up  of 
sixty-six  distinct  books,  and  its  authorship  is  attributed  to 
over  thirty  writers.  From  the  production  of  the  first  to  the  pro- 
duction of  the  last  of  these  books  there  intervenes  a  period  of 
nearly  two  thousand  years.  Some  of  the  books  g.re  historical, 
some  devotional,  some  prophetic.  Though  all  are  inspired,  yet 
each  receives  a  coloring  from  its  author's  mental  peculiarities, 
and  from  the  customs  of  the  people,  from  the  morals,  the  civil 
institutions,  and  the  philosophy  of  its  own  age.  Some  of  the 
subjects  discussed  are  of  such  a  character  that  their  complete 
comprehension  transcends  the  human  mind,  and  the  entire 
course  of  events  revealed  therein  stretches  from  the  creation  of 
the  heavens  and  the  earth  to  the  end  of  man's  probationary 
career.  Besides,  this  book  is  God's  revelation  for  all  the  ages, 
and  many  of  the  "things  yet  to  come"  of  which  it  speaks  will 
not  be  understood  until  the  race  shall  look  upon  them  in  the 
light  of  their  own  unfolding. 

Such  being  the  character  of  the  Bible,  it  is  not  remarkable 
that  men  of  equal  candor,  erudition,  and  piety  differ,  and  difier 
widely,  in  their  interpretation  of  its  teachings.  It  would  be 
much  more  remarkable  if  they  did  not  differ.  This  is  apparent 
when  we  consider  that  we  arrive  at  the  meaning  of  the  Script- 


lO  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

ures  as  we  arrive  at  the  meaning  of  other  books,  by  faithful 
study  and  the  comparison  of  part  with  part.  The  Great  Teacher 
commanded,  "Search  the  Scriptures,"  and  the  inspired  word 
itself  declares  that  in  Paul's  Epistles  "  are  some  things  hard  to 
be  understood,"  and  that  these  difficult  passages  the  unlearned 
and  unstable  not  only  do  not  understand,  but  "  wrest  unto  their 
own  destruction."  One  can  so  interpret  the  world  about  him  as 
to  be  a  morose  pessimist ;  and  one  may  so  wrest  the  teachings 
of  the  word  of  God  as  to  justify  a  wicked  life — as  we  have 
known  men  to  do.  Whoever  will  read  the  Bible  with  a  reverent 
mind,  seeking  the  Spirit  s  guidance,  will  undoubtedly  so  far 
understand  it  that  it  will  be  made  to  him  the  power  of  God  unto 
salvation.  Utterly  unreasonable  are  those  who  put  aside  the 
whole  question  as  to  the  claims  of  the  Bible  by  sajdng  to  Chris- 
tians, "  Why,  you  can  not  yourselves  agree  what  it  means  !  "  In 
all  the  sciences  and  in  all  the  arts  men  differ  in  their  views ;  and 
yet  the  sciences  contain  truth,  and  the  arts  are  useful.  The 
Bible  is  not  contradictory  in  its  teachings ;  but  man's  judgment 
is  fallible.  In  the  study  of  the  Bible  we  see  what  we  bring  the 
power  to  see,  and  no  more.  As  constitutional  peculiarities  and 
the  customs  of  his  times  give  coloring  to  the  writings  of  every 
inspired  author,  it  is  likewise  true  that  every  individual  student 
of  the  word  will  see  it,  in  a  greater  or  less  degree,  in  coloring 
reflected  upon  its  pages  from  his  own  mental  idiosyncrasies,  the 
education  he  has  received,  his  system  of  metaphysics,  and  the 
preconceived  theological  views  v/ith  which  he  sits  down  to  the 
study  of  the  word.  In  every  department  of  study  men  differ, 
and  none  differ  more  widely  than  those  justly  esteemed  the 
world's  great  thinkers.  It  is  related  that  an  Englishman  desired 
to  introduce  his  son,  then  an  Oxford  student,  to  the  two  greatest 
living  thinkers,  as  he  esteemed  them — Carlyle  and  Herbert 
Spencer.  Upon  the  close  of  the  interview  with  Spencer  the 
father  remarked  that  it  was  his  purpose  to  take  his  son  to  see 
Carlyle  also,  whereupon  Mr.  Spencer  exclaimed :  "Ah,  Mr.  Car- 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  1 1 

lyle !  I  am  afraid  he  has  done  more  to  propagate  error  than  any 
other  writer  of  the  century."  Upon  the  close  of  the  interview 
with  Carlyle  the  father  remarked :  "  This  will  be  a  day  for  my 
bo5'  to  look  back  upon,  Mr.  Carlyle,  for  in  it  he  has  been  intro- 
duced to  two  great  men  —  yourself  and  Herbert  Spencer;" 
vrhereupon  Carlyle  exclaimed :  "  Herbert  Spencer !  Herbert 
Spencer!  an  im-measur-able  fool!"  Yet  were  both  these  men 
great  thinkers,  each,  in  his  sphere,  seeing  some  truths  more 
clearly  than  any  predecessor  had  seen  them,  each  contributing 
something  to  the  general  stock  of  knowledge. 

The  interpretation  of  the  word  of  God,  equallj^  with  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  works  of  God,  has  been  progressive.  Newton 
knew  more  about  the  heavens  than  did  Galileo,  and  the  astrono- 
mers of  to-da}^  know  vastly  more  than  Newton  knew ;  and  we 
are  constrained  to  believe  that  the  sum  of  astronomical  knowl- 
edge will  yet  be  vastly  increased.  Similarly,  we  must  believe 
that  the  concurrent  theological  thought  of  to-day  more  nearly 
represents  the  true  meaning  of  the  Bible  than  did  the  thought 
of  any  preceding  age.  And  the  advance  in  biblical  interpreta- 
tion comes  much  as  does  the  advance  of  our  knowledge  of  the 
world  in  which  we  live,  in  the  science  of  government  or  of 
morals,  and  that  is  through  the  service  rendered  by  those  supe- 
rior minds  seemingly  sent  to  guide  the  race  up  to  greater  heights 
of  knowledge  and  improvement.  To  the  interpretation  of  the 
Bible,  the  establishment  of  the  Church,  and  the  progress  of 
Christian  civilization,  we  may  aptly  apply  the  declaration  of  Car- 
lyle, that  "  universal  history,  the  history  of  what  man  has  accom- 
plished in  this  world,  is  at  the  bottom  the  history  of  the  great 
men  who  have  worked  here  ;  "  and  that  all  "  things  we  see  stand- 
ing in  this  world  are,  properW,  the  outward  material  result — the 
practical  realization  and  embodiment  of  thoughts  which  dwelt 
in  the  great  men  sent  into  the  world."  The  idea  that  these 
great  leaders  msLX  be  divinel}^  sent,  to  be  the  guides  of  the  race 
in  its  march  through  and  out  of  the  wilderness  of  ignorance, 


12  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

seemed  to  impress  the  mind  of  Carlyle  even,  for  he  said:  "  The 
great  man  is  the  'creature  of  Time,'  they  say;  the  Time  called 
him  forth ;  the  Time  did  ever}^  thing ;  he  nothing  but  what  we, 
the  little  critic,  could  have  done  too !  This  seems  to  me  but 
melancholy  work.  The  Time  calls  him  forth  ?  Alas,  we  have 
known  the  Times  call  loudly  enough  for  their  great  man,  but 
not  find  him  when  they  called  !  He  was  not  there  !  Providence 
had  not  sent  him ;  the  Time  callmg  its  loudest  had  to  go  down, 
to  confusion  and  wreck,  because  he  would  not  come  when 
called."  It  is  not  more  true  in  aught  than  in  religion  and  in 
scriptural  interpretation  that  one  extreme  begets  another.  A 
great  mind  set  for  the  work  of  exposing  and  destroying  a  doc- 
trinal heresy  is  liable  to  run  into  an  extreme  opposite  the  one  he 
fights,  as  the  history  of  theological  opinions  will  show.  Yet, 
upon  the  whole,  there  is  progress ;  and  we  may  not  unreasonably 
indulge  the  belief  that  the  great  multiplication  of  facilities  for 
the  study  of  the  sacred  word,  and  the  vastly  increased  number 
of  competent  critics  now  devotedly  giving  their  erudition  and 
their  powers  of  logic  to  the  investigation  of  that  word,  will 
gradually  wear  away  the  differences  of  doctrinal  belief  which 
now  divide  the  Church  into  sects.  The  great  work  now  before 
the  Churches  of  this  country,  and  their  solemn  responsibility  in 
view  of  it,  demand,  as  it  seems  to  me,  that  they  candidly  con- 
sider, and  at  once,  whether  in  many  instances  alleged  doctrinal 
differences  are  not  entirely  too  unimportant  to  justify  the  divis- 
ion they  occasioned  and  still  perpetuate,  and  whether  because  of 
these  divisions  there  is  not  great  waste  of  spiritual  energy  and 
of  material  agencies,  both  so  greatly  needed  in  the  solution  of 
the  problem  of  the  e\'angelization  of  the  rapidly  increasing  num- 
bers who  never  enter  our  places  of  worship. 

As  declared  in  the  introduction  to  the  Confession  of  Faith  of 
the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church,  "the  right  of  private 
judgment,  in  respect  to  religion,  is  inalienable."  To  search  the 
Scriptures  for  himself  is  alike  the  right  and  the  duty  of  every 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  13 

man  who  has  the  opportunity.  No  pope  or  council  or  creed  can 
bind  the  conscience  in  this  respect.  Only  the  word  of  God  is 
the  rule  of  faith  and  practice,  and  it  is  such  to  every  man  in  the 
sense  in  which  he  understands  it  through  an  honest  effort  to 
arrive  at  its  meaning.  This  doctrine,  common  to  Protestanism, 
is  the  key  to  progress  in  the  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures. 
To  give  it  up  is  to  go  back  to  the  spiritual  bondage  of  the  mid- 
dle ages.  The  division  and  sub-division  of  Churches  is  prefer- 
able to  the  spiritual  death  in  which  men  repose  unquestioning 
faith  in  the  opinions  of  a  fallible  man  or  a  council  of  fallible 
men.  A  written  creed,  therefore,  while  it  serves  for  a  time  a 
most  important  end,  may  become  a  most  serious  hindrance  to 
the  progress  of  truth,  a  very  paralysis  on  the  Church  of  which 
it  is  the  bond  of  faith  and  practice.  To  say  that  any  creed  shall 
for  all  time  express  the  faith  of  a  Church  is  to  claim  that  the 
creed  is  infallible,  or  that  the  Church  holding  it  is  incapable  of 
progress.  As  a  great  thinker  has  said,  if  an  oak  be  planted  in  an 
urn,  the  urn  must  break  or  the  oak  must  die — a  fact  illustrated 
again  and  again  in  the  history  of  the  Christian  Church.  A  creed 
is  but  a  temporary  halting  place  in  the  march  of  mind,  indicat- 
ing a  position  in  advance  of  any  previously  reached ;  but  knowl- 
edge multiplies,  and  directly  the  creed  is  out  of  harmony  with 
the  current  of  advanced  thought,  and  unrest  and  agitation  result 
in  the  revision  of  the  creed  or  a  secession  that  sets  up  a  new 
one.  The  truths  here  hinted  at  in  an  imperfect  way  seem  to  me 
of  the  utmost  importance,  and  to  justify  the  insertion  of  the  fol- 
lowing excellent  passage  from  Bishop  Butler : 

"And  as  it  is  owned  the  whole  scheme  of  Scripture  is  not  yet 
understood,  so,  if  ever  it  comes  to  be  understood,  it  must  be  in 
the  same  way  as  natural  knowledge  is  come  at — by  the  continu- 
ance and  progress  of  learning  and  liberty,  and  by  particular  per- 
sons attending  to,  comparing,  and  pursuing  intimations  scattered 
up  and  down  it,  which  are  overlooked  and  disregarded  by  the 
generality  of  the  world.     Nor  is  it  at  all  incredible  that  a  book 


14  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

which  has  been  so  long  in  the  possession  of  mankind  should 
contain  many  truths  as  j^et  undiscovered.  For  all  the  same 
phenomena,  and  the  same  faculties  of  investigation,  from  which 
such  great  discoveries  in  natural  knowledge  have  been  made  in 
the  present  and  last  age  were  equally  in  the  possession  of  man- 
kind several  thousand  years  before." 

The  following  passage  from  the  farewell  address  to  the  Plym- 
outh Pilgrims,  by  their  pastor,  Rev.  John  Robinson,  sets  in  so 
clear  a  light  the  true  spirit  of  the  consistent  student  of  God's 
word  that  I  am  confident  the  reader  will  be  glad  that  it  is  here 
reproduced : 

"  Brethren,  we  are  now  quickly  to  part  from  one  another,  and 
whether  I  ma}^  live  to  ever  see  j'our  face  on  earth  any  more,  the 
God  of  heaven  only  knows ;  but  whether  the  Lord  hath 
appointed  that  or  no,  I  charge  j^ou  before  God  and  his  blessed 
angels  that  you  follow  me  no  farther  than  you  have  seen  me  fol- 
low the  L,ord  Jesus  Christ. 

"  If  God  reveal  any  thing  to  you  by  any  other  instrument  of 
his,  be  as  ready  to  receive  it  as  ever  you  were  to  receive  any 
truth  by  my  ministry ;  for  I  am  verily  persuaded,  I  am  very 
confident,  the  Lord  has  more  truth  yet  to  break  forth  out  of  his 
Holy  Word.  For  my  part  I  can  not  sufficiently  bewail  the  con- 
dition of  the  Reformed  Churches,  who  are  come  to  a  period  in 
religion,  and  will  go  at  present  no  farther  than  the  instruments 
of  their  Reformation.  The  Lutherans  can't  be  drawn  to  go 
beyond  what  Luther  saw ;  whatever  part  of  his  will  our  good 
God  has  revealed  to  Calvin,  they  will  rather  die  than  embrace  it. 
And  the  Calvinists,  you  see,  stick  fast  where  they  were  left  by 
that  great  man  of  God,  who  yet  saw  not  all  things. 

"  This  is  a  misery  much  to  be  lamented,  for  though  they  were 
burning  and  shining  lights  in  their  times,  yet  they  penetrated 
not  into  the  whole  counsel  of  God ;  but  were  they  now  living 
would  be  as  willing  to  embrace  further  light  as  that  which  they 
first  received.     I  beseech  you  to  remember  it,  't  is  an  article  of 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  15 

your  Church,  covenant,  that  you  be  ready  to  receive  -whatever 
truth  shall  be  -made  known  to  yoic  from  the  written  word  of  God. 
Remember  that  and  every  other  article  of  j^our  sacred  covenant. 
But  I  must  here  exhort  you  to  take  heed  what  you  receive  as 
truth.  Examine  it,  consider  it,  and  compare  it  with  •  other 
scriptures  of  truth  before  you  receive  it,  for  'tis  not  possible 
the  Christian  world  should  come  so  lately  out  of  such  thick  anti- 
Christian  darkness,  and  that  perfection  of  knowledge  should 
break  forth  at  once." — NeaV s  History  of  New  Englajid. 

"It  is  evident,"  says  Dr.  Edwards  A.  Park  in  his  "  Duties  of  a 
Theologian,"  "that  theology  has  been  obviousl}'  improving 
within  the  last  two  centuries  ;  and  the  comparison  between  the 
standard  systems  of  the  present  day  and  those  of  Turretin, 
Ridgely,  or  Owen  presents  a  rich  earnest  of  zvhat  is  to  co7ne.  Ail 
these  improvements  have  given  and  all  future  improvements 
will  give  nevvT  power  to  the  essential  doctrines  of  Jesus."  I 
truly  believe,  as  Dr.  Park  elsewhere  adds,  that  "both  the  Testa- 
ments are  more  accurately  interpreted  at  the  present  da\^  than 
they  have  ever  been  since  the  da^'s  of  John,  the  last  of  the  uner- 
ring expositors ; "  to  which  may  be  added  the  expectant  declara- 
tion of  another  equally  distinguished  critic,  who  saj^s :  "  The 
time  is  coming  (I  can  not  doubt  it)  when  all  the  dark  places 
of  the  Bible  will  be  elucidated  to  the  satisfaction  of  intelligent 
and  humble  Christians.  But  how  near  at  hand  that  blessed  day 
is  I  do  not  know.  'The  Lord  hasten  it  in  its  time ! '  "  In  the 
same  line  of  thought  the  following  excellent  words  of  Professor 
Shedd,  author  of  History  of  Christian  Doctrine,  seem  to  indicate 
a  hopeful  expectancy  of  a  convergence  of  the  views  of  intelli- 
gent Christians  in  all  evangelical  branches  of  Protestantism,  and 
the  near  approach  of  the  better  day  when  our  great  theological 
warriors  will  unitedly  turn  against  the  common  foes  of  our  holy 
religion  the  weapons  hitherto  emplo3-ed  for  mutual  overthrow : 
"All  doctrinal  history  evinces,"  says  Professor  Shedd,  "  that 
just  in  proportion  as  evangelical  believers  come  to  possess  a 


l6  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

common  scientific  talent  for  expressing  their  common  faith  and 
feeling,  they  draw  nearer  together  so  far  as  regards  their  sym- 
bolic literature.  While  on  the  contrary  a  slender  power  of  self- 
reflection  and  analysis,  together  with  a  loose  use  of  terms,  drives 
minds  far  apart  within  the  sphere  of  theology  who  often  melt 
and  flow  together  within  the  sphere  of  Christian  feeling  and 
effort.  Science  unites  and  unifies  wherever  it  prevails ;  for  sci- 
ence is  accuracy  in  terms,  definitions,  and  statements."  "  Prob- 
ably nothing  in  the  way  of  means,"  adds  the  same  writer, 
"  would  do  more  to  bring  about  that  universal  unity  in  doctrinal 
statement  which  has  been  floating  as  an  ideal  before  the  minds 
of  men  amidst  the  denominational  distractions  of  Protestantism 
than  a  thorough  and  general  acquaintance  with  the  S3^mbols  of 
the  various  denominations,  and  the  history  of  their  origin  and 
formation." 

The  careful  study  of  the  influence  of  creeds  in  their  relation 
to  the  progress  of  the  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures,  and  the 
history  of  Protestant  Christianity  will  lead,  we  think,  to  the  fol- 
lowing conclusions : 

1.  That  creeds  are  useful  as  depositories  of  the  results  of  true 
progress  in  the  interpretation  of  the  Bible,  treasuring  the  fruits 
of  investigation  by  a  master  mind,  or  of  an  epoch  of  general 
quickening  of  thought. 

2.  As  necessary  to  founding  and  perpetuating  organizations 
by  assimilating  great  numbers  in  faith  and  practice.  We  see, 
indeed,  bodies  of  Christian  believers  who  have  no  written  creed, 
and  for  that  very  reason  claiming  to  be  par  excellence  Churches 
of  Christ,  as  receiving  only  the  Bible  as  their  creed;  but  in 
these  there  is  always  an  understood  interpretation  of  the  Script- 
ures, descending  even  to  the  detail  of  mode  of  baptism,  which 
must  be  subscribed  as  a  condition  of  fellowship.  So  it  may  be 
that  there  is  most  a  creed  where  it  is  claimed  there  is  no  creed. 

3.  They  are  useful  as  tending  to  unify  Christian  belief,  on  the 
whole,  by  fixing  definitely  the  meaning  of  theological  phrases 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  i  7 

and  statements,  whereby  the  means  of  comparison  of  views  is 
furnished  to  the  whole  Church.  "  On  all  sides  and  for  all 
minds,"  says  Dr.  Shedd,  "  more  light  would  be  poured  upon  the 
profound  mysteries  of  a  common  evangelical  Christianity,  if  the- 
ologians were  in  the  habit  of  looking  over  the  whole  field  of 
symbolic  literature  instead  of  merely  confining  themselves  to 
the  examination  of  a  single  system." 

4.  That  creeds  are  harmful  when  they  are  so  received  as  to 
discourage  instead  of  promoting  the  study  of  God's  word,  and 
especially  when  put  in  the  place  of  the  only  infallible  standard, 
thus  leading  those  who  subscribe  them  to  trust  in  man  instead 
of  God.  If  it  was  wrong  for  one  to  say,  "  I  am  of  Paul,"  and 
another  to  say,  "  I  am  of  Apollos,"  much  more  must  it  be  wrong 
for  one  Christian  of  to-day  to  declare  himself  of  Calvin  and 
another  to  declare  himself  of  Luther  as  to  authority  for  their 
doctrinal  views.  Like  the  noble  Bereans,  the  subscribers  of  all 
creeds  should  "  search  the  Scriptures  "  to  see  whether  these 
creeds  speak  according  to  the  living  oracles. 

5.  Creeds  to  be  subscribed  by  the  laity  should  be  plain,  brief 
summaries  of  onlj-  the  essential  doctrines  of  Scripture.  For  can- 
didates for  ordination,  subscription  to  fuller  formulas  may  be 
necessary  in  order  to  unity  of  doctrinal  teaching  in  the  pulpits 
of  a  denomination. 

The  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church  is  fortunate  in  having 
but  a  brief  creed.  After  a  cursory  view  of  it  the  learned  Dr. 
Nelson,  late  of  Lane  Theological  Seminary,  said  to  the  writer : 
"  I  see  you  have  the  advantage  of  us  in  one  respect — you  have 
less  Confession  of  Faith  ;  and  if  I  had  my  way  ours  would  be 
less  still — there  is  no  need  of  so  much  book." 

A  correspondent  of  The  Church  U?iion  suggests  this  brief 
creed  as  a  scriptural  basis  of  Christian  unity : 

Doctrine.—"  I  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Son  of  God." 
Practice. — "  If  we  walk  in  the  light,  as  he  is  in  the  light,  we 
have  fellowship  one  with  another. ^^ 


1 8  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 


CHAPTER  IV. 

SOME  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  LEADING  CREEDS  OF  THE 
CHRISTIAN    WORLD. 

"  He  that  abideth  in  the  doctrine  of  Christ,  he  hath  both  the  Father  and 
the  Son." 

TT  seems  desirable  to  introduce  here,  as  required  by  logical 
continuity   of   our   subject,    a   brief    notice   of  the   leading 
CREEDS  of  the  Christian  world,  with  such  a  general  classification 
of  them  as  may  be  interesting  to  the  ordinary  reader. 

In  his  reply  to  the  question  of  his  divine  Master,  "  But  whom 
say  ye  that  I  am?"  the  Apostle  Peter  made  a  confession  which 
seems  entitled  to  the  distinction  of  being  regarded  the  first 
formal  "confession  of  faith"  under  the  Christian  dispensation: 
"  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God.^'  Whatever 
may  be  true  in  regard  to  the  import  of  Christ's  reply — whether 
the  "  rock  "  on  which  he  said  he  would  build  his  Church  is 
Peter,  or  Peter's  confession,  or  Christ  himself — it  is  pertinent  to 
notice  that  the  confession  of  Peter  recognizes  Christ  as  the  true 
Messiah  and  trul^'^  divine.  As  Lange  observes  :  "  It  is  a  con- 
fession of  Jesus  Christ  as  the  center  and  heart  of  the  whole 
Christian  system,  and  the  only  and  all-sufficient  fountain  of  spir- 
itual life — as  a  true  man  and  the  promised  Messiah,  and  as  the 
eternal  Son  of  God,  hence  as  the  God-Man  and  Savior  of  the 
world."  It  is  not  unsuitable  to  remark,  in  passing,  that  what- 
ever be  the  import  of  the  words  of  Christ  conferring  on  Peter 
power  to  bind  and  loose  in  heaven  (the  Church),  subsequently 
the  same  language  (Matt,  xviii.  i8)  was  addressed  to  all  the 
apostles ;  and  that,  as  remarked  by  Rev.  David  Brown,  D.D.,  in 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CKURCH.  19 

his  commentary  on  the  passage,  "  not  in  all  the  New  Testament 
is  there  the  vestige  of  any  authority  either  claimed  or  exercised 
by  Peter,  or  conceded  to  him,  above  the  rest  of  the  apostles — a 
thing  conclusive  against  the  Romish  claims  in  behalf  of  that 
apostle." 

Peter's  open  confession  of  faith  in  Christ  as  the  Son  of  the  liv- 
ing God,  in  his  nature,  his  mission,  his  work,  is  the  true  door  of 
admittance  to  the  Church  of  Christ  and  the  test  of  the  funda- 
mental orthodoxy  of  all  subsequently  formed  creeds,  as  embrac- 
ing the  central  idea,  and  life,  and  power  of  the  gospel.  As  the 
sun  in  the  solar  system,  so  is  the  central  truth  divinely  revealed 
to  Peter,  in  its  relation  to  all  evangelical  creeds,  as  is  most  sug- 
gestively illustrated  in  their  contents — Christ  "  the  way,  the 
truth,  and  the  life." 

It  is  sufScient  for  our  present  purpose  to  classify  creeds  as 
those  formed  before  and  those  formed  after  what  is  known  as 
the  Reformation,  an  event  justly  regarded  a  great  dividing  line 
in  the  history  of  the  Christian  Church. 

A.— Creeds  Formed  Before  the  Reformation. 

The  confession  of  Peter  seems  to  have  been  repeated  by  the 
early  converts  to  Christianity  upon  their  admission  to  the 
Church  by  the  rite  of  baptism,  as  in  the  case  of  the  eunuch  bap- 
tized by  Philip,  whose  solemn  asseveration  was,  "  I  believe  that 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  Son  of  God."  (Acts  viii.  37.)  As  com- 
manded, the  apostles  baptized  "  into  the  name  of  the  Father, 
and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  "  and  this  of  necessity 
involved  the  convert's  implied,  if  not  a  formallv  declared,  con- 
fession of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  .giving  a  second  element 
m  the  faith  on  which  primitive  converts  were  baptized.  Some 
writers  upon  the  subject  regard  r  Tim.  iii.  16  as  a  "creed-form  " 
current  at  the  time  it  was  penned,  but  it  lacks  formal  confession 
of  the  Trinity,  though  the  Trinitv  is  implied  in  the  summarv  of 
the  person  and  mediatorial  work  of  Christ.     From  these  begin- 


20  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

nings,  through  stages  not  now  known,  there  was  formed  at  a 
very  early  date  what  is  known  to  the  Christian  world  as 

I.   The  Apostles'  Creed. 

Of  this  venerable  creed  Luther  says  :  "  This  confession  of 
faith  we  did  not  make  or  invent,  nor  did  the  fathers  before  us ; 
but  as  a  bee  collects  honey  from  the  beautiful  and  fragrant  flow- 
ers of  all   sorts,  so  is  this  symbol    briefly  and  accurately  put 

together  out  of  the  books  of  the  prophets  and  apostles 

And  it  has  been  in  the  Church  from  the  beginning,  since  it  was 
either  composed  by  the  apostles  themselves  or  else  brought 
together  from  their  writings  or  preaching  by  some  of  their  best 
pupils."  Rufinus  affirmed  his  belief  at  the  end  of  the  fourth 
century  that  it  was  made  up  of  contributions  from  each  one  of 
the  apostles,  as  the  Greek  word  giving  name  to  it  {aonliolov) 
signifies  "  thrown  in."  The  Latin  title  is  Symboliim  Apostolicum, 
and  the  first  word  of  the  symbol  being  credo,  thence  has  come 
the  ecclesiastical  "creed."  The  more  general  belief  is  that  it 
was  made  up  from  the  formulas  used  by  individual  Churches, 
and  that  by  common  consent  it  had  by  the  close  of  the  second 
century  come  into  general  use  as  a  formula  for  admitting  into 
Church  fellowship.  By  order  of  the  English  Parliament  it  was 
appended  to  the  first  authorized  edition  of  the  Shorter  Cate- 
chism. This  ancient  creed,  w^hich,  without  modification,  has 
been  for  seventeen  centuries  the  symbol  of  the  faith  of  those 
claiming  one  Father,  one  Savior,  and  one  hope  of  life  eternal,  is 
here  given  in  the  version  accepted  by  all  English-speaking 
Christendom : 

7  believe  in  God  the  Father  Almighty,  maker  of  heavert  and 
earth ;  and  in  Jesus  Christ  his  only  Son  onr  Lord,  who  was  con- 
ceived by  the  Holy  Ghost,  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  stiffered  under 
Pontius  Pilate,  was  crucified,  dead,  and  buried;  he  descended  into 
hell:  the  third  day  he  rose  again  from  the  dead;  he  ascended 
into   heaven,  and  sitteth  at  the  right  hand  of  God  the  Father 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  21 

Almighty ;  from  thence  he  shall  come  to  judge  the  quick  and  the 
dead.  I  believe  i^i  the  Holy  Ghost ;  the  Holy  Catholic  C/mrch; 
the  communion  of  saints  ;  the  forgiveness  of  sins ;  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  body  ;  and  the  life  everlastiiig. 

As  there  were  in  those  early  days  only  manuscript  copies  of 
the  Bible,  and  these  in  the  hands  of  very  few,  it  is  a  reasonable 
supposition  that  the  Apostles'  Creed  was  generally  memorized 
and  frequently  repeated.  Thus  this  symbol  comes  to  us,  not 
only  invested  with  the  charm  of  antiquity,  but  with  the  hallowed 
association  of  having  been  on  the  lips  of  a  vast  multitude  who 
have  dropped  their  bodies  on  the  shore  of  life's  unresting  sea ! 
As  another  index  of  the  faith  of  the  earlier  days  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  as  showing  the  agreement  of  the  general  teaching 
with  the  Apostles'  Creed,  the  following  is  cited  from  a  work 
of  Tertullian,  belonging  to  the  end  of  the  second  century : 

"The  rule  of  faith  is  one  only,  unchangeable,  and  not  to  be 
amended,  namely,  the  belief  in  one  sole  omnipotent  God,  the 
maker  of  the  world  ;  and  in  his  Son  Jesus  Christ,  born  of  the 
Virgin  Mary,  crucified  under  Pontius  Pilate,  raised  from  the 
dead  on  the  third  day,  received  into  heaven,  seated  now  on 
the  right  hand  of  the  Father,  and  to  come  hereafter  to  judge 
the  living  and  the  dead,  through  the  resurrection  of  the  flesh." 
2.   The  Nicene  Creed.     (A.D.  325-569.) 

The  circumstances  giving  rise  to  this  creed  are  also  the  key  to 
its  doctrinal  structure,  and  show  how  the  Church  has  frequently 
found  it  necessary  to  expand  a  creed  already  in  use.  It  contains 
a  fuller  statement  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  as  the  Father, 
the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  an  addition  made  necessary  by 
the  fact  that  heretical  teachers  sprang  up  who  professed  faith  in 
a  trinity,  but  denied  the  divinity  of  Christ  and  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  These  teachers  claimed,  moreover,  that  they  put  on  the 
Apostles'  Creed  the  true  construction,  as  also  on  the  Scriptures. 
Hence,  as  Professor  Shedd  observes,  this  "symbol  introduces 


22  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

scientific  conceptions  and  technical  terms,  in  order  to  preclude 
that  possibility  of  two  interpretations  of  language  which  was 
connected  with  the  earlier  symbol."  The  part  of  the  creed 
relating  to  the  divinity  of  Christ  was  formulated  by  a  general 
council  held  in  Nice,  Bithynia,  A.D.  325 ;  the  part  relating  to  the 
divinity  and  personality  of  the  Holy  Ghost  was  added  by  a  gen- 
eral council  held  at  Constantinople,  A.D.  381 ;  and  the  part 
beginning  with  "  nlioque,"  supplied  by  a  general  council  of  the 
Latin  Church  at  Toledo,  Spain,  A.D.  569.  This  creed  was 
received  by  both  the  Greek  and  the  Latin  Churches,  the  former 
rejecting  the  last  added  part,  and  in  modern  times  is,  as  Professor 
Shedd  afiirms,  "  the  received  creed-statement  of  all  trinitarian 
Churches."  By  this  ancient  confession  also,  as  by  the  Apostles' 
Creed,  are  we  reminded  of  the  essential  unity  and  the  unchange- 
ableness  of  Christian  faith  in  its  fundamental  elements.  Sys- 
tems of  philosophy  rise,  flourish,  and  pass  away ;  one  system  of 
government  gives  place  to  another,  but  the  faith  of  God's  peo- 
ple, like  the  word  of  the  Lord  on  which  it  is  founded,  changes 
not.  In  its  usual  English  dress  the  Nicene,  or  Niccsno-Constanti- 
7iopolitan  Symbol,  is  as  follows : 

"  I  believe  in  one  God,  maker  of  heaven  and  earth,  and  all 
things  visible  and  invisible ;  and  in  one  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the 
only  begotten  Son  of  God,  begotten  of  his  Father,  before 
all  worlds;  God  of  God,  Light  of  Light,  very  God  of  very 
God,  begotten,  not  made,  being  of  one  substance  with  the 
Father,  by  whom  all  things  were  made ;  who,  for  us  men  and 
for  our  salvation,  came  down  from  heaven,  and  was  incarnate  by 
the  Holy  Ghost  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  was  made  man,  and 
was  crucified  also  for  us  under  Pontius  Pilate.  He  suffered  and 
was  buried,  and  the  third  day  he  rose  again  according  to  the 
Scriptures,  and  ascended  into  heaven,  and  sitteth  on  the  right 
hand  of  the  Father.  And  he  shall  come  again  with  glory  to 
judge  both  the  quick  and  the  dead;  whose  kingdom  shall  have 
no  end.     And  I  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Lord  the  Giver 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  23 

of  life,  who  proceedeth  from  the  Father  and  the  Son,  who  with 
the  Father  and  the  Son  together  is  worshiped  and  glorified; 
who  spake  by  the  prophets.  And  I  believe  in  one  Catholic  and 
Apostolic  Church ;  I  acknowledge  one  baptism  for  the  remission 
of  sins ;  and  I  look  for  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  and  the  life 
of  the  world  to  come." 

Subsequent  to  the  promulgation  of  the  Niceyie  Creed  there 
sprang  up  the  heresj-  known  as  Nestorianism,  which  teaches 
that  the  human  and  the  divine  natures  of  Christ  constitute  two 
persons  ;  to  correct  which  a  council  held  at  Ephesus,  A.D.  431, 
formulated  the  true  doctrine  of  the  tv/o  natures  in  one  person. 
An  opposite  extreme  taught  that  the  two  natures  in  Christ's  per- 
son formed  but  one  nature,  vv^hich  was  condemned  by  a  deliver- 
ance of  the  council  of  Chalcedon ;  and  these  two  councils  for- 
mulated the  doctrine  since  received  hy  the  Christian  world,  of 
two  natures  in  the  07ie  person  of  the  Son  of  God.  This  creed  is 
usually  styled — 

3.  The  Chalcedon  Symbol.     (A.D.  451.) 

At  this  halting-place  the  Church  has  stood  ever  since.  "  The 
theological  mind  has  net  ventured  be3-ond  the  positions  estab- 
lished at  this  time,  respecting  the  structure  and  composition  of 
Christ's  most  mysterious  person — a  subject  in  some  respects 
more  baffling  to  speculation  than  that  of  the  Trinity  proper." — 
Professor  Shedd. 

4.  The  Athanasian  Creed.     {Symbolum  Quicumque.) 

"This  creed,"  says  Dr.  A.  A.  Hodge,  in  his  Commentary  on 
the  Westminster  Confession,  "was  evidently  composed  long 
after  the  death  of  the  great  theologian  whose  name  it  bears,  and 
after  the  controversies  closed  and  the  definitions  established  by 
the  councils  of  Ephesus  and  Chalcedon.  It  is  a  grand  and 
unique  monument  of  the  unchangeable  faith  of  the  whole 
Church  as  to  the  great  mysteries  of  godliness,  the  Trinity  of 
persons  in  the  one  God  and  the  duality  of  natures  in  the  one 
Christ."     "  It  was  drawn  up,"  says  Dr.  Shedd,  "  in  order  to  fur- 


24  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

nish  a  sj^mbol  that  would  be  received  by  both  the  Eastern  and 

Western  Churches It  is  most  probable  it  originated  in 

the  school  of  Augustine  and  Hilary,  whose  trinitarianism  it  em- 
bodies." 

Comparing  these  great  creeds,  beginning  with  the  confession 
of  the  candidate  for  baptism,  "  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of 
the  living  God,"  and  coming  on  to  this  last,  which  brings  us  to 
the  twilight  of  the  Reformation,  we  see  how  in  all  of  them  there 
is  imbedded  a  clear  and  unchangeable  faith  in  the  divinity  of 
Christ,  not  less  certainly  than  there  are  rocky  strata  in  the  crust 
of  the  earth — the  element  of  faith  essential  to  the  great  hope  of 
humanity,  that  Jesus  has  power  to  forgive  sins,  and  to  give 
eternal  life  to  all  who  believe  upon  him. 

From  the  Athanasian  creed  that  portion  relating  to  the  person 
of  Christ  is  here  given  : 

"  27.  But  it  is  necessary  to  eternal  salvation  that  he  should 
also  faithfully  believe  in  the  incarnation  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  28.  It  is  therefore  true  faith  that  we  believe  and  confess 
that  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  both  God  and  man.  29,  He  is 
God ;  generated  from  eternity  from  the  substance  of  the  Father ; 
man  born  in  time  from  the  substance  of  his  mother.  30.  Perfect 
God,  perfect  man,  subsisting  of  a  rational  soul  and  human 
flesh.  31.  Equal  to  the  Father  in  respect  to  his  divinity,  less 
than  the  Father  in  respect  to  his  humanity.  32.  Who,  although 
he  is  God  and  man,  is  not  two,  but  one  Christ.  33.  But  tvv'o  not 
from  the  conversion  of  divinity  into  flesh,  but  from  the  assump- 
tion of  his  humanity  into  God.  34.  One  not  at  all  from  the  con- 
fusion of  substance,  but  from  unity  of  person.  35.  For  as 
rational  soul  and  flesh  is  one  man,  so  God  and  man  is  one 
Christ." 

We  pass  now  a  long  interval  which  closed  with  the  great  tran- 
sition event  in  the  history  of  the  Church,  called  the  Reforma- 
tion. A  new  birth  of  Christendom  was  to  come — and  was  sadly 
needed.     "  The  Lord's  vineyard  was  a  desert.     The  priesthood 


CUMBERI.AND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  25 

was  grown  worldly  and  even  dissolute.  The  popes,  overstep- 
ping ail  limits  in  their  assumptions,  led  lives  horrible  and  scan- 
dalous beyond  measure.  Church  assem^blies  seemed  held  only 
for  the  Bacchanalian  orgies  that  went  with  them."  In  the  sky 
of  this  moral  and  spiritual  night  appeared  such  stars  as  John  of 
Milic,  Wiclif,  and  Huss,  and  directly  there  burst  forth  a  resplen- 
dent constellation  of  such  men  as  the  world  has  rarely  seen. 
Out  of  their  labors  came  the  Protestant  Reformation,  and  out  of 
the  emancipation  of  thought  attending  the  Reformation  came  a 
large  number  of  confessions  of  faith,  which  may  be  designated 

B. — Creeds  Formed  Since  the  Reformation. 

I.   Canons  and  Decrees  of  the  Council  of  Treyit.     (A.D.  1545— 

1563-) 

A  general  synod,  designed  to  counteract  the  progress  of  the 
Reformation,  was  called  by  Pope  Paul,  and  met  at  Trent,  Decem- 
ber, 1545,  continuing  its  sessions,  with  intermission,  nearly  eight 
years.  This  synod  issued  the  creed  known  as  Canzones  et  Decreta 
Concilii  Tridentini.  A  papal  bull  of  Pius  IV.  confirmed  the 
canons  and  decrees,  and  "  forbade,  under  severest  penalties,  all 
clergymen  and  laymen  from  making  explanations  upon  them." 
The  "decrees"  contain  the  papal  doctrine,  and  the  "canons" 
explain  the  decrees,  and  condemn  the  opposite  tenets  of  the 
Protestant  Church— ending  always  with  ''anathema  sitr 

A  catechism  explaining  and  enforcing  the  canons  of  the  coun- 
cil of  Trent  was  promulgated  A.D.  1556,  bv  authority  of  Pope 
Pius  IV. 

In  1564  a  bull  of  Pius  IV.  enjoined  on  all  public  teachers,  all 
candidates  for  clerical  or  academical  honors,  and  all  converts 
from  other  Churches  to  subscribe  the  Tridentine  Profession  of 
Faith,  which  is  made  up  of  the  Nicene  Creed  and  the  canons  of 
the  Tridentine  synod. 

The  Papal  Church  has  also  the  Catechis?n  of  Bellarmine  (1603), 
the  hdl  Ujiigenitus  of  Clement  XI.   (1711),  the    Confitation  of 


26  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

ihe  Confession  of  Augustine,  the  Missale  Romaruim,  and  the 
Breviarium  Romamcm,  as  "  important  auxiliary  sources  of  the 
papal  doctrine." 

2.  Creeds  of  the  Greek  Church. 

The  most  important  modern  confession  of  the  Greek  Church 
is  the  Orthodox  Confession  drawn  up  in  1642  by  Peter  Mogilas, 
bishop  of  Kiew,  to  counteract  Protestantism,  which  was  pub- 
lished in  Russian,  modern  Greek,  Latin,  and  German.  The 
Confessio  Dosithei  was  prepared  by  a  Greek  patriarch  of  Jerusa- 
lem, exposing  the  errors  of  the  Calvinistic  system.  Tlie  Con- 
fessio Gennadii  was  prepared  at  an  earlier  date  (1453)  b}'  Genna- 
dius,  patriarch  of  Constantinople,  being  a  summary  of  the 
fundamental  truths  of  the  Christian  religion. 

"  This  Church  arrogates  to  herself  pre-eminently  the  title  of 
the  '  orthodox,'  because  the  original  creeds  denning  the  doctrine 
of  the  Trinity  and  the  person  of  Christ  were  produced  in  the 
Eastern  half  of  the  ancient  Church,  and  hence  are  in  a  peculiar 
sense  her  inheritance.  Greek  theology  is  very  imperfectly 
developed  beyond  the  ground  covered  hy  these  ancient  creeds, 
which  that  Church  magnifies  and  maintains  with  singular  tenac- 
ity."—/?r.  A.  A.  Hodge. 

Founding  its  doctrinal  s^^stem  on  the  Apostles'  Creed  and  the 
decisions  of  the  seven  general  councils  previous  to  the  division 
into  the  Eastern  (or  Greek)  and  the  Western  (or  Latin)  Church, 
the  Greek  Church  rejects  the  decisions  of  all  Western  councils 
since  the  schism.  The  Greek  Church,  like  the  Roman,  is 
Arminian  in  theology. 

3.  The  Luther ayi  Creeds. 

Luther  and  Calvin  showed  themselves  leaders  of  theological 
thought,  and  the  impress  of  their  minds  remains  in  the  two 
great  branches  of  the  Protestant  world,  the  Lutheran  and  the 
Reformed  Churches.  "The  Lutheran  Church,"  as  remarked  by 
Professor  Shedd,  "  adopted  with  decision  the  Patristic  results  in 
the  departments  of  theology  and  christology.     But  the  doctrines 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  27 

of  sin  and  redemption  had  been  left,  to  some  extent,  undevel- 
oped by  the  Patristic  mind,  and  entirely  without  definite  sym- 
bolic statement,  and  had  been  misstated  by  the  papal  mind  at 
Trent;  and  hence  the  principal  part  of  the  new  and  original 
work  of  the  Lutheran  divine  was  connected  with  these."  In 
the  year  1530  a  confession  previously  prepared  by  Luther,  Me- 
lanchthon,  and  two  other  divines  was  submitted  to  the  imperial 
diet  at  Augsburg,  and,  with  slight  modifications,  was  adopted. 
First  in  time,  promulgated  by  an  imperial  diet,  most  important 
of  all  Lutheran  symbols  is  this 

(a)  Augsburg  Confession.     (A.D.  1530.) 

Summoned  to  the  undertaking  by  Charles  V.,  the  papal  theo- 
logians prepared  a  critical  examination  of  this  Augsburg  Con- 
fession, which  was  read  in  an  imperial  assembly  in  August,  1530, 
and  was  approved  by  Charles,  who  thereupon  demanded  that 
the  Protestants  return  to  the  doctrines  of  the  Papal  Church.     A 
copy  of  this  document  was  refused  the  Protestants,  but  Melanch- 
thon,  from  notes  taken  by  himself  and  others  when  it  was  read 
in  the  diet,  prepared  an  able  answer  to  the  papal  Confutatio,  as 
it  was  called,  v/hich  answer  the  Protestants  desired  to  present  to 
Charles,  who  declared,  however,  that  he  would  neither  hear  nor 
receive  any  more  documents  from  the  Protestants.     From  the 
first  this  document,  called  the  Apology,  was  regarded  as  of  o-reat 
authority  in  doctrine,  and  in  1537  it  was  formally  subscribed,  at 
Smalcald,  as  a  doctrinal  symbol,  and  is  generally  designated 
{b)    The  Apology  for  the  Aiigsburg  Confession.     (1530.) 
After  these  principal  symbols  Lutheran  theologians  recognize 
(i)  The  Larger  and  Smaller  Cateehis7ns,  "  the  first  for  the  use  of 
preachers  and  teachers,  the  latter  as  a  guide  in  the  instruction 
of   youth,"   prepared   by   Luther  (1529).     (2)    The   Articles  of 
S?nalcald,  prepared  by  Luther  in  1536,  and  subscribed  formally 
the  next  j^ear.     (3)  The  Saxon  Confession,  prepared  by  Melanch- 
thon  in   1551.     (4)    The    WiLrtembiirg  Coyifession,  composed  by 
Brenz  in  1552,  which,  like  the  Saxon,  was  prepared  for  a  council 


28  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

of  Trent,  both  being  copies  of  the  Augsburg  Confession.  (5) 
The  Formula  Concordia:,  drawn  up  in  1557  by  Andrea  and  others. 
"  It  is  a  polemic  document  constructed  by  that  part  of  the  lyUth- 
eran  Church  hostile  to  the  Calvinistic  theory  of  the  sacraments. 
It  carries  the  doctrine  of  consubstantiation  into  technical  state- 
ment, teaching  the  presence  of  the  divine  nature  of  Christ  in 
the  sacramental  elements." — Shedd.  The  High  Lutherans  re- 
ceive the  Formula  Concordice ;  the  moderate  party  reject  it, 
"  content  to  stand  b)^  the  Augsburg  Confession,  the  Apology,  and 
the  Smalcald  Articles T 

4.  Reformed  {Calvinistic)  Confessions. 

Under  the  title  of  "Reformed  Churches"  are  embraced  all 
the  Churches  of  Germany  subscribing  the  Heidelberg  Catechism  ; 
the  Protestant  Churches  of  Switzerland,  France,  Holland,  Eng- 
land, and  Scotland;  the  Independents  and  Baptists  of  England 
and  America;  and  the  various  branches  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  England  and  America. 

The  Reformed  Churches  represent  that  element  of  the  Refor- 
mation which  came  most  fully  out,  so  to  speak,  of  bondage  to 
papal  traditions,  and  insisting  most  fully  on  the  study  of  the 
word  of  the  Lord  as  the  privilege  and  duty  of  every  man.  It  is 
but  a  natural  sequence  that  we  have  creeds  many  and  Churches 
many,  since  theologians  of  this  class  went  to  work  to  determine 
anew  the  teachings  of  the  word,  to  the  study  of  which  they  gave 
themselves  most  earnestly.  Passing  by  a  number  of  confessions 
having  individual  significance  and  some  that  were  adopted  by 
quite  limited  numbers  of  individual  Churches,  we  have  the  fol- 
lowing list,  which  embraces  the  leading  Reformed  creeds  : 

(a)    The  Thirty-nine  Articles  of  the  Church  of  England. 

Drawn  up  originally  in  A.D.  1551  by  Cranmer  and  Ridley, 
they  were,  in  1562,  reduced  by  the  bishops  to  their  present  num- 
ber, at  the  order  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  are  the  doctrinal 
standard  of  the  Episcopal  Churches  in  England,  Scotland,  Amer- 
ica, and  the  British  colonies. 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  29 

{b)   The  Heidelberg  Catechism. 

Prepared  by  Ursinus  and  Olerianus,  A.D.  1562.  "It  was 
established  by  civil  authority,  the  doctrinal  standard,  as  well  as 
instrument  for  the  Churches  of  the  Palatinate,  a  German  State 
at  that  time  including  both  banks  of  the  Rhine.  It  is  the  Con- 
fession of  Faith  of  the  Reformed  Churches  of  Germany  and 
Holland,  and  of  the  German  and  (Dutch)  Reformed  Churches  of 
America." — Dr.  A.  A.  Hodge. 

(c)   The  Second  Helvetic  Confession.     (1564.) 

"  It  was  adopted  by  all  the  Reformed  Churches  in  Switzer- 
land with  the  exception  of  Basle,  and  by  the  Reformed  Churches 
in  Poland,  Hungary,  Scotland,  and  France." — Professor  Shedd. 

{d)   The  Ca7ions  of  the  Synod  of  Dort. 

The  synod  of  Dort  (Holland)  met  in  November,  161 8,  and  con- 
tinued its  sessions  until  the  next  May.  It  was  composed  of 
sixty-eight  Hollanders  and  twenty-eight  foreign  delegates,  the 
latter  representing  England,  Scotland,  the  Palatinate,  Hesse, 
Switzerland,  Nassau,  East  Friesland,  and  Bremen.  The  special 
object  of  the  call  of  the  synod  was  to  oppose  Arminianism, 
which  had  sprung  up  in  Holland  about  the  beginning  of  that 
century.  The  Arminians  were  represented  by  thirteen  deputies, 
headed  b)^  Episcopius.  "  The  English  Episcopal  Church,  in 
which  at  that  time  the  Arminian  party  was  dominant,  rejected 
the  decisions  of  this  synod,  and  a  mandate  of  James  I.,  in  1620, 
forbade  the  preaching  of  the  doctrine  of  predestination." — Shedd. 
The  deliverance  of  the  synod  embraces  ninety-three  canons, 
which  constitute  "  a  true,  accurate,  and  eminently  authoritative 
■exhibition  of  the  Calvinistic  system  of  theology." 

{e)  The  Westmhister  Confession  and  Catechisms.  (A.D.  1643- 
1648.) 

This  doctrinal  standard  is  the  product  of  an  assembly  of 
divines  called  by  the  English  Parliament  for  the  purpose  of  set- 
tling the  government,  liturgy,  and  doctrine  of  the  Church  of 
England.     The  assembly  met  at  Westminster,  July  i,  1643,  and 


30  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

sat  until  February  22,  1648,  holding  in  all  one  thousand  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty-three  sessions.  Chosen  from  the  several  counties 
of  England,  the  members  of  the  assembly  represented  the  Pres- 
bj'terian,  the  Episcopal,  and  the  Independent  Churches,  Presby- 
terians being  much  in  the  ascendency.  This  doctrinal  formula 
is  adopted  by  "  all  the  Presbyterian  Churches  in  the  world  of 
English  and  Scotch  derivation,  and  is  of  all  creeds  the  one  most 
highly  approved  by  all  the  bodies  of  Congregationalists  in  En- 
gland and  America."  The  convention  of  Congregationalists 
called  by  Cromwell,  in  Savoy  Palace,  London,  1658,  framed  the 
Savoy  Confession,  which  is  so  nearly  the  same  as  the  Westminster 
that  "  the  modern  Independents  have  in  a  manner  laid  aside  the 
use  of  it  in  their  families,  and  agreed  with  the  Presbyterians  in 
the  use  of  the  assembly's  catechisms."  "All  the  assemblies  con- 
vened in  New  England,"  continues  Dr.  Hodge,  "  for  the  purpose 
of  settling  the  doctrinal  basis  of  their  Churches,  have  either 
indorsed  or  explicitly  adopted  this  confession  and  these  cate- 
chisms as  accurate  expositions  of  their  own  faith.  The  Cam- 
bridge (Mass.)  Platform  (1647-8),  the  Boston  Confession  (1679-80), 
and  the  Saybrook  (Conn.)  Platform  (1708)  are  all  of  this  Calvin- 
istic  type." 

From  the  days  of  the  great  theologian  whose  name  it  bears 
Calvinism  has  largely  dominated  the  thought  of  the  Protestant 
world.  It  is  a  massive  system,  challenging  the  respect  of  pious 
souls  by  its  exaltation  of  the  sovereignty  of  God  as  displayed  in 
an  assumed  unconditional  eternal  decree  that  determines  what- 
soever comes  to  pass,  and  hinging  salvation  on  sovereign  elec- 
tion thereto  before  the  foundation  of  the  world,  and  without 
any  thing  foreseen  in  the  creature  as  a  reason  for  the  choice, 
and  similarly  attributing  the  damnation  of  the  non-elect  to  the 
good  pleasure  of  God  in  passing  them  by.  It  could  not  result 
otherv/ise  than  that  an  assumption  so  fundamental  would  largely 
affect  the  theology  and  the  anthropology  of  a  system  of  doctrine 
in  harmony  with  it.     And  so  it  has  been.     But  to  this  doctrine 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  7.1 

an  early  formal  protest  was  made,  and  the  constant  growth  of 
that  pretest  furnishes  a  long  and  interesting  chapter  in  the  prog- 
ress and  emancipation  of  religious  thought — a  chapter  not  j'et 
completed,  New  York,  Chicago,  and  other  places  witnessing  just 
now  stormy  theological  discussions  rising  out  of  honest  and 
irrepressible  protest  to  Calvinism.     This  brings  us  to 

5.    The  Anninian  Confessions. 

James  Arminius,  born  at  Oudewater,  Holland,  1560,  after  a 
preliminary  education  spent  six  years  in  the  university  at  L,ey- 
den,  and  subsequently  studied  at  Geneva,  where  he  had  for  his 
instructor  one  of  the  most  distinguished  scholars  of  the  day, 
Theodore  Beza,  a  Calvinist  of  the  most  rigid  type.  Here  he 
incurred  the  displeasure  of  the  "Aristotelians  of  Geneva,"  and 
in  consequence  was  compelled  to  leave.  Going  to  Basle,  he 
"was  offered  by  the  faculty  of  divinity  in  the  university  the 
degree  of  doctor,  gratis,  which,  however,  he  did  not  venture  to 
accept,  on  account  of  his  youth."  Calvinism  had  already  occa- 
sioned in  the  Netherlands  "  a  passionate  controversy,  which 
ended  in  the  split  of  the  Netherland  Reformed  Church."  Ar- 
minius was  drawn  into  the  controversy,  and  being  commissioned 
to  defend  the  doctrine  of  his  instructor,  Beza,  regarding  predes- 
tination, it  is  said  he  carefully  examined  both  sides  of  the  ques- 
tion, and  with  the  unexpected  result  that  "he  himself  began  to 
doubt,  and  at  last  came  to  adopt  the  opinions  he  had  been  com- 
missioned to  refute."  As  Arminius  is  credited  with  a  system  of 
doctrine  becoming  so  widely  prevalent  in  the  Christian  world, 
his  theological  adherents  find  comfortable  assurance  in  the  abun- 
dant testimony  to  both  his  ability  and  his  piety,  one  reliable 
authority  declaring  that  "he  was  an  extremely  good  man,  as 
even  his  enemies  allow ;  his  abilities  also  were  of  a  high  order ; 
his  thinking  is  clear,  bold  and  vigorous ;  his  style  remarkably 
methodical,  and  his  scholarship  respectable,  if  not  profound." 

The  Arminians  adopted  no  symbol  or  confession.    The  sources 
of  their  doctrines,  as  enumerated  in  Shedd's  chapter  on  symbols. 


32  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

are  these :  (i)  The  writings  of  Arminius.  (2)  The  Confessions 
of  the  Pastors  called  Remonstrants,  by  Episcopius.  (3)  The 
Remonstrance,  by  Peter  Bertius,  containing  a  specification  of 
five  points  held  by  Arminius,  in  opposition  to  the  well-known 
"five  points"  of  Calvinism.  (4)  The  writings  of  Grotius,  Lim- 
borch,  Wetstein,  and  IvcClerc.  In  1610  the  Arminians  ("Re- 
monstrants ")  presented  to  the  assembled  states  of  the  province 
of  Holland  a  remonstrance  containing  the  following  five  propo- 
sitions, as  being  the  logical  results  of  the  teaching  of  Arminius : 

1.  That  God  had  indeed  made  an  eternal  decree,  but  only  on 
the  conditional  terms  that  all  who  believe  in  Christ  shall  be 
saved,  while  all  who  refuse  to  believe  must  perish. 

2.  That  Christ  died  for  all  men.  If  the  efiicacy  of  his  death  is 
restricted,  it  is  by  unbelief. 

3.  That  no  man  is  of  himself  able  to  exercise  saving  faith. 

4.  That  without  the  grace  of  God  men  can  not  do  any  thing 
good,  but  that  grace  does  not  act  in  men  in  an  irresistible  way. 

5.  That  believers  are  able,  by  the  aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  vic- 
toriously to  resist  sin  ;  but  that  the  question  of  the  possibility  of 
a  fall  from  grace  must  be  determined  by  a  further  examination 
of  the  Scriptures  on  this  point. 

The  last  point  in  the  fifth  item  was  a  year  later  decided  in  the 
affirmative  by  the  Arminians,  their  action  adding  to  the  fierce- 
ness of  the  controversy  and  causing  the  Calvinists  to  "  put  forth 
a  strong  '  counter- remonstrance  '  plainly  asserting  absolute  pre- 
destination and  reprobation."  Politics  added  to  the  fury  of  the 
conflict,  which  reached  such  a  stage  of  violence  that  the  Calvin- 
ists refused  to  submit  to  an  edict  of  the  states  for  toleration  to 
both  parties,  and  the  Arminians  found  it  necessary  to  guard 
themselves  from  violence  by  the  aid  of  a  guard  of  militia-men, 
notwithstanding  which  several  lost  their  lives,  and  the  learned 
Grotius,  with  others,  was  cast  into  prison.  The  battles  that  fol- 
lowed have  doubtless  helped  to  give  us  the  "  purer  air  "  and  the 
"broader  view"  of  our  day,  when  Christians  differing  in  faith 


CUMBERIvAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CPIURCH.  33 

exhibit  a  better  spirit,  and  theological  disputants  show  much 
greater  zeal  for  truth,  and  less  for  party.  On  all  sides  the  prog- 
ress of  our  race  toward  the  better  day  has  been  through  effort, 
struggle,  sacrifice,  and  much  seeming  loss.  When  the  theolog- 
ical giants,  equipped  with  all  the  armor  that  learning,  logic  and 
rhetoric  could  supply,  strode  forth  to  what  seemed  merely  drawn 
battles,  and  retired  mutually  worsted,  there  was  indeed  apparent 
loss  of  most  valuable  moral  power,  but  it  now  seems  that 
through  all  the  conflict  theological  thought  was  taking  a  set  in 
the  right  direction.  To-day  it  is  a  deep,  broad  current,  no- 
where more  obvious  than  with  the  denominations  professing  to 
hold  to  the  Westminster  Confession  and  Catechisms.  Having 
at  our  very  origin  taken  our  bearing  far  away  from  the  troubled 
waters  of  Calvinism,  as  Cumberland  Presbyterians  we  now  may 
opportunely^  invite  our  brethren  still  "  driven  up  and  down  in 
Adria"  to  examine  the  theological  chart  by  which  we  find 
smooth  sailing  on  a  sea  of  divine  mercy  unlimited  by  a  partial 
atonement  or  an  eternal  decree  of  unconditional  reprobation. 

In  proof  of  the  alleged  drift  of  theological  thought,  the  fol- 
lowing action,  just  adopted  by  the  Presbytery  of  New  York, 
and  passed  with  but  three  dissenting  votes,  is  pertinent  and, 
as  indicating  wide-spread  demand,  is  hopefully  significant  of  a 
near  grouping  of  Protestant  bodies  into  fewer  organizations, 
and  thereby,  as  we  may  believe,  of  greater  efficiency  in  the 
common  work  : 

"  Furthermore,  as  germane  to  the  subject  which  the  assembly 
had  in  mind  in  referring  these  questions  to  the  presbyteries, 
your  committee  recommends  that  this  presbytery  overture  the 
General  Assembly  to  invite  the  co-operation  of  the  Presbyterian 
and  Reformed  Churches  of  America  and  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  to  formulate  a  short  and  simple  creed,  couched,  so  far  as 
may  be,  in  Scripture  language,  and  containing  all  the  essential 
and  necessary  articles  of  the  Westminster  Confession,  which 
creed  shall  be  submitted  for  approval  and  adoption  as  the  com- 

3 


34  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

mon  creed  of  the  Presbyterian  and  Reformed  Churches  of  the 
world.  We  believe  that  there  is  a  demand  for  such  a  creed,  not 
as  a  substitute  for  our  Confession,  but  only  to  summarize  and 
supplement  it  for  the  work  of  the  Church.  We  would  and  we 
must  retain  our  standards,  which  we  have  as  our  family  inherit- 
ance and  as  the  safeguard  of  our  ministry  and  of  our  institu- 
tions. But  a  brief  and  comprehensive  creed,  at  once  interpret- 
ing and  representing  those  standards,  would  be  welcomed  by  our 
Churches  as  most  helpful  and  beneficent  for  the  exposition  of 
what  we  have  meant,  through  all  these  years,  by  the  '  system  of 
doctrine  taught  in  the  Holy  Scriptures.'  We  want  no  new  doc- 
trines, but  only  a  statement  of  the  old  doctrines  made  in  the 
light  and  in  the  spirit  of  our  present  Christian  activities,  of  our 
high  privileges,  and  of  our  large  obligations — a  statement  in 
which  the  love  of  God  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our  L,ord  shall 
be  central  and  dominant." 

The  following  is  the  creed  of  the  illustrious  orator  and  states- 
man whose  name  is  subscribed,  as  he  communicated  it  to  a 
friend,  August,  1807,  saying,  "  Some  time  ago  I  wrote  down,  for 
my  own  use,  a  few  propositions  in  the  shape  of  articles, 
intending  to  exhibit  a  very  short  summary  of  the  doctrines  of 
the  Christian  religion,  as  they  impress  my  mind."  The  reasons 
given  for  his  belief  of  each  article  are  omitted : 

"  I  believe  in  the  existence  of  Almighty  God,  who  created 
and  governs  the  whole  world. 

"  I  believe  that  God  exists  in  three  persons. 

"  I  believe  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament  to  be 
the  will  and  word  of  God. 

"  I  believe  Jesus  Christ  to  be  the  Son  of  God.  And  I  believe 
there  is  no  other  way  of  salvation  than  through  the  merits  of 
his  atonement.  D-  Webstkr." 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  35 


CHAPTER  V. 

A   FULLER  ACCOUNT  OF  THE   ORIGIN   OF  THE  WESTMINSTER 

SYMBOLS. 

TDESIDES  their  relation  to  our  own  Confession  and  Catechism, 
the  Westminster  Standards  are  doctrinal  formulae  of  very- 
great  interest.  The  circumstances  under  which  they  were 
formed,  their  contents,  and  the  extent  to  which  for  nearly  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years  they  have  anchored  the  best  theological 
thought  of  the  world,  will  forever  invest  them  with  interest  to 
the  student  of  the  progress  of  religious  thought. 

On  June  12,  1643,  what  was  called  the  Long  Parliament  issued 
an  ordinance  calling  an  assembly  to  meet  at  Westminster,  on 
the  first  day  of  July.  On  the  22d  of  June  the  King  issued  a 
proclamation  forbidding  the  meeting,  declaring  that  no  acts  done 
by  them  ought  to  be  heeded  by  his  subjects,  and  threatening 
that  if  they  should  meet  he  "  would  proceed  against  them  with 
the  utmost  severity  of  the  law."  This  proclamation  had  the 
effect  to  deter  the  Episcopalian  members  from  attending,  and 
thereby  really  furthered  the  cause  of  Presbyterian  polity  and 
Calvinistic  theology.  The  King  and  Parliament  alike  claimed 
the  right  to  reconstruct  the  Church ;  but  many,  even  then,  be- 
lieved it  was  no  business  of  either. 

"  When  the  Parliament  issued  the  ordinance  for  calling  to- 
gether an  assembly  of  divines,"  says  Hetherington's  History  of 
the  Westminster  Assembly,  "there  was,  it  will  be  remembered, 
actuallj'  no  legalized  form  of  church  government  in  England,  so 

far  as  depended  on  the  legislature The  chief  object  of 

the  Parliament  was,  therefore,  to  determine  what  form  of  church 


^6  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

government  was  to  be  established  by  law  in  the  room  of  that 
which  had  been  abolished."  The  unhappy  state  of  things  in 
England  is  charged,  by  the  writer  last  quoted,  on  the  Prelatic 
system — "  how  Prelacy  had  ffovo'iicd  and  how  Prelacy  had 
taught  the  English  people."  "At  first  it  showed  its  tyrannical 
tendenc}'  by  imposing  ceremonies  not  warranted  b}'  the  word 
of  God,  and  associated  with  popery,  and  by  enforcing  these  with- 
out the  slightest  regard  to  tenderness  of  feeling  or  liberty  of 
conscience.  Advancing  on  its  despotic  career,  it  interfered  with 
the  forms  and  the  language  of  worship,  prescribing  to  man  after 
what  manner,  and  in  what  terms,  he  was  to  address  his  Creator, 
without  regard  to  that  Creator's  commands.  At  length  it 
reached  its  extreme  limits,  and  presumed  to  exercise  absolute 
control  over  the  doctrines  which  Christ's  ambassadors  were  to 
teach,  thus  rashly  interfering  not  merely  with  man's  approach  to 
God,  but  also  with  God's  message  to  man." 

The  order  convoking  the  Westminster  Assembly  delegated  to 
one  hundred  and  fifty-one  persons  the  right  to  membership 
therein,  namely,  ten  Lords  and  twenty  Commons  as  lay  assess- 
ors, and  one  hundred  and  twenty-one  divines.  It  seems  to  show 
a  wish  of  fairness  on  the  part  of  the  Parliament,  as  Hethering- 
ton  remarks,  that  thej'  named  men  of  all  shades  of  opinions  in 
matters  of  church  government,  and  that  there  was  an  honest 
purpose  to  secure  a  competent  discussion  of  the  whole  subject. . 

"At  length  the  appointed  day  came ;  and  on  Saturday,  the  ist 
of  July,  the  members  of  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament  named 
in  the  ordinance,  and  many  of  the  divines  therein  mentioned, 
and  a  vast  congregation  met  in  the  Abbey  Church,  Westminster. 
Dr.  Twisse,  the  appointed  prolocutor  of  the  assembly,  preached 
an  elaborate  sermon  from  John  xiv.  i8:  'I  will  not  leave  you 
comfortless.  I  will  come  unto  j^ou.'  "  No  business  being  in 
readiness  for  the  assembly,  it  adjourned  until  Thursday  of  the 
next  week.  "This  very  fact,"  observes  Hetherington,  "points 
out  one  peculiarit}^  of  the  Westminster  Assembly — it  was  neither 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  3 


a  convocation  nor  a  Presbyterian  Synod  or  General  Assembly, 
and  it  could  not  be  either  the  one  or  the  other,  for  the  Prelatic 
form  of  Church  government  had  been  abolished  and  there  was 
no  other  yet  in  existence.  The  true  theory  of  the  Westminster 
Assembl)^  comprises  tv/o  main  elements:  (i)  There  was  a  Chris- 
tian Church  in  England,  but  not  organized ;  (2)  and  the  civil 
power,  avowing  Christianity,  had  called  an  assemblj'-  of  divines 
for  the  purpose  of  consulting  together  respecting  those  points 
of  government  and  discipline  which  require  the  sanction  of  civil 
authority  for  their  full  efficiency." 

By  agreement  all  propositions  were  to  originate  with  Parlia- 
ment and  go  then  to  the  assembly.  Strict  rules  of  procedure 
in  business  were  adopted  at  the  start,  and  such  as  seemed  to  aim 
at  securing  fairness  on  all  questions  and  to  all  parties.  To 
further  secure  the  honest  ends  aimed  at,  it  was  resolved  at  the 
opening  that  every  member  of  the  assembly,  whether  a  lord, 
common,  or  divine,  should  bind  himself  by  solemn  oath  before 
taking  a  seat,  which  oath  ran  in  this  way :  "  I  do  seriously  prom- 
ise and  vow  in  the  presence  of  Almighty  God  that  in  this  assem- 
bly, whereof  I  am  a  member,  I  will  maintain  nothing  in  point 
of  doctrine  but  what  I  believe  to  be  most  agreeable  to  the  word 
of  God,  nor  in  point  of  discipline  but  w^hat  I  shall  conceive  to 
conduce  most  to  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  good  and  peace  of 
his  Church,"  and  it  is  recorded  that  this  protestation  was  ap- 
pointed to  be  read  afresh  every  Monday  morning,  that  its  solemn 
influence  might  be  constantlj^  felt. 

Preliminaries  settled,  the  Parliament  sent  the  assembly  an 
order  to  "revise  the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  for  the  purpose  of 
simplifying,  clearing,  and  vindicating  the  doctrines  contained 
therein."  About  ten  weeks  had  been  occupied  in  this  discus- 
sion, only  the  first  fifteen  of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  having 
been  under  discussion,  when  occurrences  gave  a  new  and  unex- 
pected turn  to  the  deliberations  of  the  grave  body.  Upon  the 
first  purpose  to  call  the  Westminster  Assembly  the  Parliament 


38      ■     DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

applied  to  the  Scottish  Church  to  send  commissioners,  and  steps 
toward  granting  the  request  were  taken  by  the  Church,  which 
appointed  some  ministers  and  elders  to  be  in  readiness.  But 
owing  to  delay  in  the  meeting  of  the  proposed  assembly,  or  be- 
cause of  not  wishing  to  interfere  in  the  strife  between  the  King 
and  his  Parliament,  the  Scottish  delegates  declined  to  attend. 
In  consequence  of  this  failure  English  commissioners  attended 
the  Scottish  General  Assembly  early  in  August,  1643,  presenting 
an  appeal  signed  by  seventy  divines,  "  supplicating  aid  in  their 
desperate  condition,"  which  "  letter,"  says  one  historian  "  was  so 
lamentable  that  it  drew  tears  from  many  eyes."  But  how  assist- 
ance could  be  given  to  England  without  jeopardizing  Scotland 
was  the  very  difficult  problem  of  the  hour.  The  commissioners 
had  assured  their  minds  with  reference  to  the  sincerity  of  the 
Parliament,  but  "the  Scottish  statesmen  and  ministers  could  not 
but  perceive  that  if  the  King  should  succeed  in  subjugating  his 
Parliament  he  would  then  be  able  to  assail  Scotland  with  an  irre- 
sistible force."  Another  difficulty  grew  out  of  the  fact  that  the 
English  commissioners  sought  aid  for  the  defense  of  the  civil 
liberties  of  both  countries,  while  the  entire  spirit  of  the  contest 
in  which  Scotland  had  been  engaged  was  of  a  religious  charac- 
ter, and  only  in  defense  of  religious  liberty.  The  famous  docu- 
ment known  as  the  "Solemn  League  and  Covenant"  was  the 
result,  which,  combining  the  idea  of  mutual  aid  in  defense  of 
civil  liberty  with  that  of  aid  in  the  defense  of  religious  liberty, 
claimed  as  its  objects  "  the  reformation  and  defense  of  religion, 
the  honor  and  happiness  of  the  King,  and  the  peace  and  safety 
of  the  three  kingdoms  of  Scotland,  England,  and  Ireland."  It 
was  passed  unanimously  on  the  17th  of  August  by  the  Scottish 
Assembly,  "  amid  the  applause  of  some  and  the  bursting  tears 
of  a  deep,  full,  and  sacred  joy  of  others ;  and  in  the  afternoon, 
with  the  same  cordial  unanimity,  passed  the  Convention  of 
Estates." 

A  copy  of  the  "  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  "  was  forwarded 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  39 

the  English  Parliament  and  the  Westminster  Assembly,  and, 
with  "  slight  verbal  alterations  "  for  the  sake  of  explanation,  it 
was  agreed  to  by  all  the  assembly  "  except  Dr.  Burgess,  who 
continued  to  resist  it  and  to  refuse  his  assent  for  several  days, 
till  he  incurred  the  serious  displeasure  of  both  assembly  and 
Parliament,  which  he  at  last  averted  by  yielding."  Accordingly, 
on  September  15,  the  Scottish  commissioners  consented  to  take 
seats  in  the  Westminster  Assembl}',  only  six  in  all,  who  were 
welcomed  with  great  kindness  and  courtesy  in  three  successive 
speeches.  On  the  25th  of  September  both  branches  of  Parlia- 
ment subscribed  the  "  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,"  and  in 
the  most  impressive  manner  "  the  prolocutor  read  it  from  the 
pulpit,  slowly  and  aloud,  pausing  at  the  close  of  every  article, 
while  the  whole  audience  of  statesmen  and  divines  arose,  and, 
with  their  right  hands  held  up  to  heaven,  worshiped  the  great 
name  of  God  and  gave  this  sacred  pledge."  Speaking  of  this 
event,  a  prominent  member  of  the  assembly  declared  it  "  a  new 
period  and  crisis  of  the  most  great  affair  which  these  hundred 
years  has  exercised  these  dominions,"  and  Hetherington  adds 
that  "  he  was  not  mistaken ;  it  was  indeed  the  commencement 
of  a  new  period  in  the  history  of  the  Christian  Church,  though 
that  period  has  not  j^et  run  its  full  round,  nor  reached  its  crisis — 
a  crisis  which  will  shake  and  new  mold  the  world."  The  great 
principles  set  forth  in  this  memorable  "  League  and  Covenant," 
while  they  may  not  justify  the  claim  that  "  it  is  the  wisest,  the 
sublimest,  and  the  most  sacred  document  ever  framed  by  unin- 
spired men,"  certainly  do  render  it  a  most  remarkable  deliver- 
ance in  its  spirit,  its  aim,  and  its  clear  enunciation  of  truths  that 
are  indeed  new  molding  the  religious  world. 

The  course  affairs  had  taken  led  the  Parliament  to  direct  the 
Assembly  to  lay  aside  the  work  of  revising  the  thirty-nine  ar- 
ticles, in  order  to  prepare  as  speedily  as  practicable  "  such  a  dis- 
cipline and  government  as  may  be  most  agreeable  to  God's  holy 
word."    The  country  was  ecclesiastically,  no  less  politically,  in  a 


40  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

state  of  the  utmost  confusion  and  unrest.  Because  Prelacy  had 
been  set  aside  or  for  other  reasons  "  there  had  sprung  up  a  great 
number  of  sects,  holding  all  various  shades  of  opinion  in  relig- 
ious matters,  from  such  as  were  simply  absurd  down  to  those 
that  were  licentiously  wild  and  glaringly  blasphemous.  It  is 
almost  impossible  even  to  enumerate  the  sectarians  that  rushed 
prominently  into  public  manifestation  when  the  overthrow  of  the 
prelatic  hierachy  and  government  rendered  it  safe  for  them  to  ap- 
pear, and  it  would  be  wrong  to  pollute  our  pages  with  a  state- 
ment of  their  pernicious  and  horrible  tenets."  The  Presby- 
terians, the  Independents,  and  the  Erastians  were  the  three 
principal  parties  as  to  theories  of  ecclesiastical  polity,  the  Eras- 
tians claiming  that  all  ecclesiastical  power  belongs  to  the  civil 
authority.  The  debates,  contentions,  and  intrigues  by  which 
these  several  parties  sought  to  gain  the  ascendency  make  up  a 
large  part  of  the  proceedings  through  which  was  finally  reached 
a  system  of  discipline  and  government  which  has  gained  wide 
acceptance.  In  October,  1647,  both  branches  of  the  Parliament 
accepted  the  results  of  the  labors  of  the  Assembly,  which  was 
regarded  as  "  the  final  settlement  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
government,  so  far  as  that  was  done  by  the  L,ong  Parliament, 
in  accordance  with  the  advice  of  the  Westminster  Assembly  of 
Divines."  But  this  establishment  of  the  Presbyterian  govern- 
ment was  only  "  until  the  end  of  the  next  session  of  Parliament," 
or  about  a  year,  before  the  expiration  of  which  period  "  the  Par- 
liament itself  had  sunk  beneath  the  power  of  Cromwell,  whose 
policy  was  to  establish  no  form  of  Church  government,  but  to 
keep  every  thing  dependent  on  himself,  though  his  chief  favors 
were  bestowed  on  the  Independents." 

Of  the  reverses  which  in  the  immediate  future  awaited  Presby- 
terianism  in  England  our  limits  will  not  permit  us  to  speak. 
The  brief  reference — too  brief  to  be  satisfactory — to  some  of  the 
leading  events  of  one  of  the  most  remarkable  epochs  in  the 
world's  history  serves  to  indicate  the  heat  of  discussion  in  which 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  41 

was  forged  a  system  of  ecclesiastical  government  at  once  com- 
pact, symmetrical,  and  efficient,  and  justifying  perhaps,  the  high 
claim  of  its  advocates,  that  it  is,  "  of  all  sj'stems  that  have  ever 
existed  in  the  Church,  the  most  agreeable  to  the  principles  of 
Church  government  which  may  be  deduced  from  Scripture." 

Resuming  the  work  of  framing  a  Confession  of  Faith,  the  West- 
minster Assembly  appointed  a  committee  to  prepare  and  arrange 
the  main  propositions  which  were  to  be  discussed  and  digested 
into  a  sj^stem,  who  reduced  the  whole  to  thirty-tv/o  distinct 
heads,  which  heads  were  subdivided  into  sections.  The  com- 
mittee resolved  itself  into  sub-committees,  "  each  of  which  took 
a  specific  topic  for  the  sake  of  exact  and  concentrated  delibera- 
tion." When  the  entire  committee  had  agreed  upon  a  report 
from  a  sub-committee,  that  article  was  reported  to  the  Assembly, 
and  "  again  subjected  to  the  most  careful  and  minute  in- 
vestigation, in  every  paragraph,  sentence,  and  word."  So  the 
work  was  carried  to  completion.  According  to  Hetherington, 
whose  history  of  the  Assembly  is  unquestioned  authority, 
"throughout  the  deliberations  of  the  Assembly  while  composing 
the  Confession  of  Faith,  there  prevailed  almost  an  entire  and 
perfect  harmony."  On  the  doctrine  of  election  they  had  "  long 
and  tough  debates."  The  only  other  article  that  occasioned 
much  debate  is  this  :  "  The  Lord  Jesus,  as  King  and  Head  of  his 
Church,  has  therein  appointed  a  government  in  the  hands  of 
Church  officers  distinct  from  the  civil  magistrate."  This  prop- 
osition was  understood  as  condemning  the  spirit  of  Erastianism, 
and  hence  was  bitterly  opposed  by  the  Erastian  party,  but  was 
finally  adopted,  there  being  but  one  dissenting  vote.  Copies  of 
the  Confession  w'ere  printed,  that  the  members  of  Parliament 
might  severally  examine  it,  and  in  March,  1648,  a  meeting  was 
held  for  comparing  their  opinions,  both  houses  participating,  the 
result  of  which  is  expressed  by  the  following  record:  "The 
Commons  this  daj^  (March  22),  at  a  conference,  presented  the 
Lords  with  the  Confession  of  Faith  passed  by  them,  with  some 


42  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

alterations,  viz.,  that  they  do  agree  with  their  Lordships,  and  so 
with  the  Assembly,  in  the  doctrinal  part,  and  desire  the  same 
may  be  made  public,  that  this  kingdom,  and  all  the  Reformed 
Churches  of  Christendom,  may  see  the  Parliament  of  England 
■differ  not  in  doctrine." 

It  has  been  well  observed  that  the  Westminster  Confession 
deserves  the  attention  of  all  students  of  theology,  not  only  as  a 
remarkable  monument  of  Christian  learning,  but  as  the  most 
representative  expression  of  a  great  spiritual  movement  which 
has  tinged  the  national  thought  of  Britain,  and  modified  the 
course  of  its  history.  Of  its  thirty-three  chapters,  only  twenty- 
one  are  distinctly  doctrinal.  It  makes  the  doctrine  of  the  eternal, 
unconditional  divine  decree  fundamental,  subordinating  all  others 
to  it.  In  the  Reformed  Churches  it  has  evoked  an  amount  of 
study  and  discussion  second  only  to  that  bestowed  on  the 
Scriptures.  It  has  divided  Christian  bodies  and  reunited  them. 
What  of  its  hold  upon  the  Christian  world  of  to-day  ? 

Dr.  C.  A.  Briggs,  of  Union  Theological  Seminary,  who  claims 
to  have  spared  no  time,  labor,  or  expense  necessary  to  the  in- 
vestigation of  the  question,  declares  that  from  the  Westminster 
Standards,  in  their  historical  sense,  "  modern  Presbyterianism 
has  departed  all  along  the  line."  After  declaring  the  Westmin- 
ster symbols  "  the  most  elaborate  and  definite  of  all  the  creeds 
of  Protestantism,"  he  adds :  "  But  it  is  clear  to  any  one  who  has 
studied  the  genesis  of  the  Westminster  Standards,  and  the  doc- 
trinal history  of  Great  Britain  and  America,  that  the  Presby- 
terian and  Congregational  Churches  have  drifted  in  many  im- 
portant respects  from  the  Westminster  orthodoxy,"  In  his  book 
suggestively  entitled  Whither  ?  Dr.  Briggs  devotes  several  chap- 
ters to  the  proof  of  his  assumption  that  "  the  American  Presby- 
terian Church  has  drifted  away  from  the  Westminster  Stand- 
ards," and  sums  up  the  result  in  the  declaration,  "We  have  seen 
that  the  Presbyterian  Church  has  departed  from  the  nine  chap- 
ters of  the  Confession  considered  in  the  present  chapter,  into 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  43 

serious  error.  In  the  whole  realm  of  doctrine  and  practice 
contra-confessional  views,  that  strike  at  essential  and  necessary 
articles,  and  destroy  the  Westminster  system,  are  either  enter- 
tained by  large  numbers  of  our  ministry  and  people,  or  else  are 
allowed  to  remain  unchallenged  by  the  orthodox,  and  are  toler- 
ated as  if  they  were  errors  of  small  importance." 

While  I  can  not  indorse  the  theological  system  of  Dr.  Briggs, 
I  heartily  commend  his  book  for  its  fair  and  independent  utter- 
ances, and  as  exhibiting  much  valuable  research,  upon  which  I 
shall  have  occasion  to  draw  for  illustration  in  the  pages  that  are 
to  follow.  The  following  sentences  embody  truths  of  vast  im- 
portance and  of  wide  application  in  the  great  problem  of  the 
evolution  of  a  system  of  theology^  in  harmony  with  all  truth,  as 
one  must  be  to  be  a  true  system :  "  None  of  the  older  divines 
gave  the  human  reason  its  proper  place  in  religion  and  theology." 
"The  Bible  ....  does  not  war  against  the  truths  of  nature,  of 
the  reason,  or  of  history.  "  .  .  .  .  "The  sacred  Scriptures  are  for 
the  whole  world,  and  for  all  time.  As  man  grows  in  the  knowl- 
edge of  nature,  of  himself,  and  of  history,  he  will  grow  in  the 
knowledge  of  the  Scriptures." 


Part   II. 

Doctrinal  Statement  and  Exposition. 


DOCTRmAL  STATEMENT  AND  EXPOSITION. 


CHAPTER  I. 

OF  THE  HOLY  SCRIPTURES. 

^  I  ^HE  system  of  doctrine  held  and  taught  by  the  Cumberland 
Presbyterian  Church  is  comprised  in  its  Confession  of  Faith 
and  the  appended  Catechism.  It  is  not  proposed  to  present  in 
these  pages  a  systematic  commentary  on  our  standards,  but 
rather  to  give  prominence  to  the  statement  and  discussion  of 
such  doctrines  as  set  forth  our  system  of  theology,  and  especially 
as  that  system  is  distinguished  from  what  is  popularly  known  as 
the  Calvinistic  system.  It  will  fall  within  my  aim  to  treat  more 
at  length  also  any  doctrines  on  which  there  is  current  discussion 
in  our  Church.  Our  Standards  were  revised  so  lately  as  1873, 
and  rather  hurriedly  for  a  procedure  of  so  great  importance  in 
its  relation  to  the  peace  and  purity  of  the  body.  It  could  not 
have  been  otherwise  than  that  time  for  careful  examination  of 
all  the  phraseology  employed  by  the  revisers  would  have  devel- 
oped differences  of  opinion  as  to  the  meaning  of  some  of  the 
doctrinal  statements,  and  as  to  the  propriety  of  some  of  the 
language  used.  It  is  a  safe  rule  to  hold  that  subordinate  parts 
are  to  be  interpreted  in  harmony  with  the  system  of  doctrine 
embodied  in  the  Confession,  and  all  parts  with  reference  to  the 
Scripture  passages  cited  as  proof-texts. 

The  doctrinal  statements  of  the  Confession  are  grouped  under 
thirty-six  leading  topics,  under  which  heads  are  one  hundred  and 
fifteen  specifications.  Under  the  first  general  topic,  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  we  have  these  four  specifications : — 

(47) 


48  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

"i.  The  Holy  Scriptures  comprise  ail  the  books  of  the  Old  and 
the  New  Testament  which  are  received  as  canonical,  and  which 
are  given  by  inspiration  of  God  to  be  the  rule  of  faith  and  prac- 
tice." [Here  follows  an  enumeration  of  the  books  of  the  Old 
and  the  New  Testament.] 

"  2.  The  authority  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  depends  not  upon 
the  testimony  of  any  man  or  Church,  but  upon  God  alone." 

"  3.  The  whole  counsel  of  God  concerning  all  things  necessary 
for  his  own  glory — in  creation,  providence,  and  man's  salvation 
— is  either  expressly  stated  in  the  Scriptures,  or  by  necessary 
consequence  may  be  deduced  therefrom  ;  unto  which  nothing  at 
any  time  is  to  be  added  by  man,  or  from  the  traditions  of  men ; 
nevertheless,  we  acknowledge  the  inward  illumination  of  the 
Spirit  of  God  to  be  necessary  for  the  saving  understanding  of 
such  things  as  are  revealed  in  the  word." 

"  4.  The  best  rule  of  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures  is  the 
comparison  of  scripture  with  scripture." 

The  first  item  is  doubtless  intended  for  a  definition  of  the 
Scriptures,  but  it  serves  to  remind  us  that  if  the  function  of  lan- 
guage be  not  "  to  conceal  thought,"  words  are  often  so  collated 
as  to  express  thought  very  imperfectly.  The  language  implies 
that  only  as  many  of  the  books  of  the  Old  and  the  New  Testa- 
ment as  "  are  received  as  canonical "  are  comprised  in  the  Holy 
Scriptures.  But  are  there  in  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament 
any  books  not  received  as  canonical  ? 

The  Westminster  Confession  defines  a  little  more  clearly, 
thus,  "  Under  the  name  of  Holy  Scripture,  or  the  word  of  God 
written,  are  now  contained  all  the  books  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments,  which  are  these,"  the  enumeration  following. 

Whether  the  added  relative  clause  in  our  Confession,  "and 
which  are  given  by  inspiration  of  God  to  be  the  rule  of  faith  and 
practice,"  is  further  restrictive  as  to  the  books  (of  the  two  Tes- 
taments) that  are  to  be  comprised  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  or 
whether  it  is  an  independent  assertion  of  the  inspiration  of  the 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  49 

canonical  books,  it  is  difficult  to  decide.  Notwithstanding  its 
obscurity — a  criticism  indulged  in  no  censorious  spirit,  and  that 
may  serve  as  an  apolog}'  for  obscurities  in  these  pages — the  first 
item  sets  forth  three  important  propositions,  namely : 

1.  Cumberland  Presbyterians  receive  as  canonical  the  thirty- 
nine  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  the  twenty-seven  books 
of  the  New  Testament,  as  these  sixty-six  books  are  held  by  all 
other  Protestant  Churches. 

2.  That  the  Holy  Scriptures,  comprised  in  the  books  specified, 
are  "given  by  inspiration  of  God." 

3.  That  they  are  given  "  to  be  the  rule  of  faith  and  practice," 
or,  in  the  stronger  expression  of  the  fifth  section  of  the  Intro- 
duction to  the  Confession,  "  the  only  infallible  rule  of  faith  and 
practice." 

For  the  rejection  of  the  books  usually  included  in  what  is 
termed  the  Apocrypha  received  bj^  the  Roman  Church,  the  fol- 
lowing reasons  are  asigned :  (i)  The  authors  of  these  books  do 
not  claim  inspiration ;  (2)  the  books  contradict  one  another,  and 
contradict  also  the  books  usually  called  canonical ;  (3)  the  Jews 
never  acknowledged  them  to  be  inspired ;  (4)  they  were  written 
after  the  days  of  Malachi,  with  whom,  as  the  Jews  believed,  the 
gift  of  prophecy  ceased  ;  (5)  they  are  never  quoted  by  Christ  or 
his  apostles ;  (6)  they  were  not  received  in  the  first  ages  of 
Christianity  as  canonical;  (7)  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
they  were  not  received  by  the  most  learned  divines,  until  late  in 
the  sixteenth  century  the  Council  of  Trent  declared  for  the 
inspiration  of  the  Apocryphal  books. 

There  is  wide  difference  of  opinion  as  to  what  is  meant  by  the 
statement  that  the  Scriptures  are  "  given  by  inspiration  of  God," 
some  holding  that  only  the  doctrines  contained  in  these  books 
are  divinely  communicated,  but  that  the  writings  are  not  inspired  ; 
while  another  view  asserts  such  a  divine  guidance  of  the  minds 
of  the  writers  as  secured  an  inspired  statement  of  the  divinely 
imparted  doctrines ;  and  a  third  view  asserts  verbal  inspiration, 


50 


DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 


or  that  the  very  words  in  which  a  revelation  was  first  made  were 
suggested  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  If  there  is  in  the  Cumberland 
Presbyterian  Church  a  current  theory  in  regard  to  the  exact  im- 
port of  the  "  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,"  the  writer  is  unable 
to  state  it.  It  is  possible  for  Christians  to  diflfer  widely  in  re- 
spect to  this  point,  and  yet  all  hold  that  "  all  Scripture  is  given 
by  inspiration,"  and  all  hold  it  in  a  sense  that  will  render  the 
Scriptures  "  profitable  for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for  correction, 
for  instruction  in  righteousness."  Whatever  may  be  the  truth 
in  regard  to  the  original  manuscripts  through  which  inspired 
men  first  gave  to  the  world  a  revelation  of  the  will  of  God,  not 
one  of  these  manuscripts  is  known  to  be  now  in  existence,  and 
hence  it  is  certain  that  we  now  can  have  but  copies  and  transla- 
tions that  have  come  to  us  through  the  fidelity  of  pious  and 
learned  men  who  did  not  claim  the  gift  of  inspiration. 

The  following  passage  from  Dr.  A.  A.  Hodge's  Commentary 
on  the  Westminster  Confession  presents  the  view  of  a  plenary 
inspiration,  extending  even  to  "  infallible  expression  in  words:" 

"  The  books  of  Scripture  were  written  by  the  instrumentality 
of  men,  and  the  national  and  personal  peculiarities  of  their 
authors  have  been  evidently  as  freely  expressed  in  their  writing, 
and  their  natural  faculties,  intellectual  and  moral,  as  freely  exer- 
cised in  their  production,  as  those  of  the  authors  of  any  other 
writings.  Nevertheless,  these  books  are,  one  and  all,  in  thought 
and  verbal  expression,  in  substance  and  form,  wholly  the  word 
of  God,  conveying,  with  absolute  accuracy  and  divine  authority, 
all  that  God  meant  them  to  convey,  without  any  human  admixt- 
ures or  additions.  This  was  accomplished  by  a  supernatural  in- 
fluence of  the  Spirit  of  God  acting  on  the  spirits  of  the  sacred 
writers,  called  '  inspiration,'  which  accompanied  them  uniformly 
in  what  they  wrote,  and  which,  without  violating  the  free  opera- 
tion of  their  faculties,  yet  directed  them  in  all  they  wrote,  and 
secured  the  infallible  expression  of  it  in  words.  The  nature  of 
this  divine  influence  we,  of  course,  can  no  more  understand  than 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  51 

we  can  in  the  case  of  any  other  miracle.  But  the  effects  are  plain 
and  certain,  viz. :  that  all  written  under  it  is  the  very  word  of 
God,  of  infallible  truth,  and  of  divine  authority ;  and  this  infalli- 
bility and  authority  attach  as  well  to  the  verbal  expression  in 
which  the  revelation  is  conveyed,  as  to  the  matter  of  revelation 
itself." 

This  doctrine  of  "  verbal  inspiration,"  taught  by  Hodge  a8rd 
the  Princeton  theologians,  is  strenuously  opposed  by  Dr.  Briggs, 
in  his  work  already  mentioned,  as  being  a  wide  departure  from 
the  historic  teachings  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  "These 
Princeton  divines  risk  the  inspiration  and  authority  of  the 
Bible,"  Dr  Briggs  goes  on  to  say,  "  upon  a  single  proved  error. 
Such  a  position  is  a  serious  and  a  hazardous  departure  from 
Protestant  orthodoxy.  It  imperils  the  faith  of  all  Christians 
who  have  been  taught  this  doctrine.  They  can  not  escape  the 
evidence  of  errors  in  the  Scriptures.  This  evidence  will  be 
thrust  upon  them  whether  they  will  or  not No  more  dan- 
gerous doctrine  has  ever  come  from  the  pen  of  men.  It  has 
cost  the  Church  the  loss  of  thousands.  It  will  cost  us  tens  of 
thousands  and  hundreds  of  thousands  unless  the  true  Westmins- 
ter doctrine  is  speedily  put  in  its  place.  This  false  doctrine  cir- 
culates in  a  tract  bearing  the  imprint  of  the  Presbyterian  Board 
of  Publication,  among  our  ministers  and  people,  poisoning  their 
souls  and  misleading  them  into  dangerous  error." 

These  conflicting  views  are  cited  to  show,  not  only  the  extent 
of  the  divergence  of  opinion  with  respect  to  the  sense  in  which 
inspiration  may  be  held,  but  that  scholars  of  high  reputation, 
who  are  accredited  teachers  in  theological  schools  of  the  same 
denomination,  arrive  at  widely  different  conclusions  in  their  in- 
vestigation of  this  question. 

Dr.  T.  C.  Blake,  in  his  compend  of  theology,  after  stating  the 
two  principal  theories  of  inspiration,  adds  that  "the  preponder- 
ance of  authority  is  certainly  in  favor  of  the  latter  method — 
verbal  inspiration,"  and  proceeds  to  argue  thus : 


52  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

"  It  is  a  fact,  which  no  one  will  call  iu  question,  that  we  think 
in  words.  Words  are  the  vehicles  of  thougJit  as  well  as  of  com- 
munication. It  is  as  impossible  to  think  without  words  as  it  is  to 
speak  without  words.  This  being  true,  how  could  God  make  a 
revelation  to  man  without  words  ?  and  if  v/ords  were  employed 
to  convey  the  mind  or  will  of  God,  the  question  arises,  whose 
words  were  thus  employed  ?  Most  certainly  these  were  God's, 
else  they  could  not  be  a  revelation  from  him.  The  ideas  could 
not  have  been  given  without  the  words,  because  without  them 
they  could  not  have  been  conceived." 

If  we  allow  that  Dr.  Blake's  theory  is  true  as  to  the  original 
documents  in  which  God  revealed  himself  to  man,  it  proves  too 
much  for  any  book  that  is  now  claimed  to  be  a  revelation,  or,  in 
other  words,  leaves  the  world  without  a  revelation.  If  we  have 
an  English  New  Testament,  what  one  of  the  many  versions  can 
lay  claim  to  that  distinction,  according  to  Dr.  Blake's  test  of  in- 
spiration ? 

The  solemn  practical  question  perplexing  many  pious  minds 
doubtless  is,  whether  modern  criticism  reallj^  leaves  the  world 
any  scriptures  that  may  be  called  a  revelation  from  God  in  any 
sense  that  would  constitute  them  an  "  infallible  rule  of  faith  and 
practice."  Does  it  leave  the  world  a  Bible?  In  view  of  obvious 
facts  there  seems  to  be  but  one  reasonable  answer  to  this  ques- 
tion, and  that  is  in  the  affirmative.  Not  only  so,  but  the  versions 
of  the  Bible  now  extant  in  hundreds  of  the  languages  of  the 
world,  some  exhibiting  greater  and  some  less  fidelity  to  the  text 
most  approved  by  modern  criticism,  are  all  to  be  regarded  as  the 
word  of  God  in  every  feature  necessary  to  convey  to  men  the 
will  of  God  and  the  great  scheme  of  gospel  redemption.  They 
produce  like  effect  throughout  the  world.  Through  their  instru- 
mentality men  are  everywhere  born  into  the  same  spiritual  life, 
begotten  unto  the  same  blessed  hope  of  salvation  and  everlasting 
life. 

Dr.  A.  F.  Mitchell,  in  his  introduction  to  the  Minutes  of  the 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  53 

Westminster  Assembly,  declares  that  "  if  any  chapter  in  the  Con- 
fession was  more  carefully  framed  than  another  it  was  this,  'of 
the  Holy  Scriptures.'  .  .  .  And  I  think  it  requires  only  to  be 
fairly  examined  to  show  that  its  framers  were  at  more  special 
pains  than  the  authors  of  any  other  Confession:  i.  To  avoid 
mixing  up  the  question  of  the  canonicit}^  of  particular  books 
with  the  question  of  their  authorship,  where  anj^  doubt  at  all 
existed  on  the  latter  point ;  2.  To  leave  open  all  reasonable  ques- 
tions as  to  the  mode  and  degree  of  inspiration  which  could  be 
consistently  left  open  by  those  who  accepted  the  Scriptures  as 
the  infallible  riile  of. faith  and  practice  ;  3.  To  refrain  from  claim- 
ing for  the  text  such  absolute  purity,  and  for  the  Hebrew  vowel 
points  such  antiquity,  as  was  claimed  in  the  Sv\'iss  Formula  Co?i- 
cordire,  vv'liile  asserting  that  the  originals  of  the  Scripture  are, 
after  the  lapse  of  ages,  still  pure  and  perfect  for  all  those  pur- 
poses for  which  they  were  given  ;  4.  To  declare  that  the  sense  of 
the  Scripture  in  any  particular  place  is  not  manifold,  but  one, 
and  so  raise  an  earnest  protest  against  that  system  of  spiritual- 
izing the  text  which  had  been  too  much  countenanced  by  some 
of  the  most  eminent  of  the  Fathers,  and  many  of  the  best  of  the 
mystics." 

The  best  scholarship  and  thought  lead  to  these  conclusions 
touching  this  question  of  so  very  grave  importance : 

I.  That  plenary  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  as  we  now  have 
them,  or  such  inspiration  as  extends  to  the  words  of  the  Script- 
ures, and  excludes  the  possibility  of  error  in  every  particular, 
can  not  be  defended.  2.  That  for  all  the  purposes  for  which  the 
Scriptures  were  given,  namely,  to  "  teach  what  man  is  to  believe 
concerning  God,  and  what  duty  God  requires  of  man,"  they  are 
truly  inspired,  having  been  given  to  the  world  through  men  who 
gave  utterance  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  that 
the  Scriptures  are  thus  an  infallible  rule  of  faith  and  practice. 
3.  That  the  claim  for  the  plenary  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  as 
we  now  have  them,  whatever  may  have  been  true  as  to   "the 


54  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

ipsissima  verba  of  the  original  autographs,"  is  pernicious  in  its 
tendency,  as  being  a  claim  not  justified  by  the  facts  in  the  case, 
and  thereby  calculated  to  beget  distrust  in  the  intelligent  mind, 
as  to  the  general  claim  of  the  Bible  to  be  the  word  of  God.  The 
evil  tendency  may  not  be  so  serious  as  would  be  inferred  from 
the  declaration  of  Dr.  Briggs,  that  "  no  more  dangerous  doctrine 
has  ever  come  from  the  pen  of  men,"  but  wdth  respect  to  this 
question,  as  to  all  others,  it  must  be  that  the  Church  can  build 
securely  only  as  it  builds  on  the  foundation  of  truth.  The 
sooner  we  come  to  rest  upon  the  truth,  the  less  will  be  the  dam- 
age to  be  repaired. 

As  another  illustration  of  the  manner  in  which  the  docrine  of 
plenary  inspiration  has  impressed  the  minds  of  many  of  the 
profoundest  thinkers  of  our  times,  we  cite  the  following  para- 
graphs from  M.  Guizot's  Meditatioiis  on  Christianity : 

"And  yet  this  is  what  is  pretended  by  fervent  and  learned  men, 
who  maintain  that  all,  absolutely  all,  in  the  Scriptures  is  divinely 
inspired,  the  words  as  well  as  the  ideas,  all  the  words  used  upon 
all  subjects,  the  material  of  language  as  well  as  the  doctrine  that 
lies  at  its  base." 

"In  this  assertion  I  see  but  deplorable  confusion,  leading  to 
profound  misapprehension  of  the  meaning  and  the  object  of  the 
sacred  books.  It  was  not  God's  purpose  to  give  instruction  to 
men  in  grammar,  and  if  not  in  grammar,  neither  was  it  any 
more  God's  purpose  to  give  instruction  in  geology,  astronomy, 
geography,  or  chronology.  It  is  on  their  relations  with  their 
Creator,  upon  duties  of  men  toward  him  and  toward  each  other, 
upon  the  rule  of  faith  and  conduct  in  life,  that  God  has  lighted 
them  by  light  from  heaven." 

"  The  Scriptures  speak  upon  all  subjects ;  circumstances  con- 
nected with  the  finite  world  are  there  incessantly  mixed  with 
perspectives  of  infinity ;  but  it  is  only  to  the  latter,  to  that  future 
of  which  they  permit  us  to  snatch  a  view,  and  to  the  laws  they 
impose  on  men,  that  the  divine  inspiration  addresses  itself;  God 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  55 

only  pours  his  light  in  quarters  which  man's  eye  and  man's  labor 
can  not  reach ;  for  all  that  remains  the  sacred  books  speak  the 
language  used  and  understood  by  the  generations  to  whom  they 
are  addressed.  God  does  not,  even  when  he  inspires  them, 
transport  into  future  domains  of  science  the  interpreters,  or  the 
nations  to  whom  he  sends  them  ;  he  takes  them  both  as  he  finds 
them,  with  their  traditions,  their  notions,  their  degree  of  knowl- 
edge or  ignorance  as  respects  the  finite  world,  of  its  phenomena 

and  its  laws Whatever  true  or  false  science  we  find  in  the 

Scriptures  upon  the  subject  of  the  finite  world,  proceeds  from 
the  writers  themselves  or  their  contemporaries;  they  have 
spoken  as  they  believed,  or  as  those  believed  who  surrounded 
them  when  the}'  spoke.  On  the  other  hand,  the  light  thrown 
over  the  infinite,  the  law  laid  down,  and  the  perspective  opened 
by  that  same  light,  these  are  what  proceed  from  God,  and  which 
he  has  inspired  in  the  Scriptures.  Their  object  is  essentially 
moral  and  practical ;  they  express  the  ideas,  employ  the  images, 
and  speak  the  language  best  calculated  to  produce  a  powerful 
effect  upon  the  soul,  to  regenerate  and  to  save  it." 

But  the  question  at  the  bottom  of  the  whole  discussion,  and 
fundamental  to  the  very  idea  of  religion,  is.  Can  we  be  assured 
that  the  writings  we  call  the  Scriptures  are  in  a  true  sense 
inspired?  Has  God  truly  spoken  to  his  rational  creatures  in 
this  world?  No  question  that  engages  our  thoughts  can  have 
profounder  interest  than  this  one.  Among  the  most  intense 
yearnings  of  the  human  soul  is  its  ceaseless  petition  for  a  revela- 
tion with  respect  to  the  unseen  and  that  which  is  to  be.  "  Show 
us  the  Father,  and  it  sufficeth  us !  "  Aside  from  the  Christian 
Scriptures,  the  world  knows  no  book  whose  claims  to  inspiration 
will  at  all  stand  the  test  of  reason.  Aside  from  these,  the  soul's 
cry  for  light  as  to  duty  and  destiny  is  taunted  with  but  an  empty 
echo.  But  in  these  Scriptures  themselves  it  is  claimed  that  God 
spake  to  Moses,  to  David,  to  Isaiah,  to  Jeremiah,  to  Malachi; 
that  in  later  times  he  spake  to  Peter,  to  James,  to  Paul,  to  John, 


^6  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

thus  so  filling  up  the  measure  of  divine  revelation  as  to  make  it 
indeed  an  infallible  rule  of  faith  and  practice.  A  firm  conviction 
that  these  Scriptures  are  from  God  is  at  once  the  most  rational 
support  and  the  most  powerful  stimulus  to  good  that  can  come 
to  a  human  soul.  "  I  have  read  the  sacred  volumes  over  and 
over  again,"  says  M.  Guizot ;  "  I  have  perused  them  in  very 
different  dispositions  of  mind,  at  one  time  studying  them  as 
great  historical  documents,  at  another  admiring  them  as  sub- 
lime works  of  poetry.  I  have  experienced  an  extraordinary 
impression,  quite  different  from  either  curiosity  or  admiration. 
I  have  felt  myself  the  listener  to  a  language  other  than  that  of 
the  chronicler  or  the  poet,  and  under  the  influence  of  a  breath 

issuing   from    other   sources  than  human God  is  there, 

always   present^  acting.     It  is  the  God  Que  and  Supreme,  All 

Powerful,  the  Creator,  the  Eternal These  books  are  reall}^ 

with  respect  to  the  religious  problems  that  beset  man's  thoughts, 
the  Light  and  the  Voice  of  God,  revealing  the  duties  which  Cod 
enjoins  upon  men  in  the  course  of  their  present  life,  and  the 
prospects  which  he  opens  to  them  be3'ond  the  imperfect  and 
limited  world  where  this  life  passes." 

Whoever  will  thus  come  to  the  earnest,  candid,  persevering 
study  of  the  Scriptures,  yielding  himself  to  a  purpose  to  do  the 
will  of  God  as  that  will  becomes  manifest,  and  opening  his  heart 
to  the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  will  most  certainly  expe- 
rience that  God  is  speaking  to  him  through  these  Scriptures, 
and  that  they  are  able  to  "  make  him  wise  unto  salvation."  So 
he  declared  who  came  a  Light  into  the  v/orld :  "  If  any  man  will 
{honestly  resolve  to)  do  his  will  {as  made  known  to  him),  he  shall 
know  of  the  doctrine  {I  teach),  whether  it  be  of  God,  or  whether 
I  speak  of  myself."  In  his  comment  on  this  passage,  the  }■  ounger 
Bengel  says:  "But  that,  in  its  turn,  a  more  intimate  access  to 
the  truth  is  thrown  open  bj^  the  obedience  of  the  will,  both  this 
very  declaration  of  the  divine  Savior,  and  the  whole  of  Scripture 
besides,    openly  testify."      To  the   same  sentiment  testify  the 


CUMBERIvAXD  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  57 

passages,  "He  that  followeth  me  shall  not  walk  in  darkness,  but 
shall  have  the  light  of  life,"  and,  "  If  ye  continue  in  my  Vv'ord, 
then  are  ye  my  disciples  indeed;  and  ye  shall  know  the  truth." 

Aside  from  this  internal  witness  to  the  inspiration  of  the 
Scriptures,  which  springs  from  obedience  to  the  truth  as  it  is 
perceived,  and  from  the  illumination  of  the  Hol}^  Spirit,  there  is 
an  intellectual  assent  to  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,  which 
arises  from  the  study  of  what  are  called  the  evidences  of  inspira- 
tion— a  conviction  that  may  come  to  the  man  who  fears,  rather 
than  wishes,  the  Bible  true,  and  is  in  willful  rebellion  against  per- 
ceived obligation.  Viewed  in  this  light,  the  problem  of  inspira- 
tion is  one  which  falls  v/ithin  the  province  of  reason.  What 
reason  approves  we  accept ;  vrhat  it  disapproves  we  must  reject. 
Our  intellectual  and  moral  being  knows  no  higher  law.  We  can 
accept  no  book  as  inspired,  on  the  simple  ground  that  it  claims 
to  be  inspired.  In  like  manner  the  whole  problem  of  Christian- 
ity falls  within  the  domain  of  man's  reason,  according  to  the 
verdict  of  which  it  must  be  accepted  or  rejected.  As  one  of  the 
profoundest  thinkers  of  the  century  has  said :  "  If  Christianity 
be  not  fundamentally  in  accord  with  our  original  constitution, 
and  will  not  restore  man  to  a  true  manhood,  and  the  highest 

manhood,    we   can   not   accept   it Nothing   that   can   be 

shown  to  be  really  in  opposition  either  to  reason  or  the  moral 
nature  of  man,  can  be  from  God."  It  is  true,  also,  that  each 
generation  must  decide  for  itself  the  claims  of  Christianity  and 
of  the  Bible.  We  do  not  accept  even  the  propositions  of  geora- 
etrj'  as  true  because  Euclid  declared  them  true,  but  we  demon- 
strate them  for  ourselves. 

That  man  has  a  moral  nature  is  attested  bj'  his  consciousness. 
He  is,  in  fact,  under  moral  law.  It  is  equally  true  that  he  is 
endowed  with  what  may  be  called  a  religious  nature.  In  all 
time,  ever3^vhere  man  has  worshiped.  The  history  of  the  race 
is  not  more  a  historj'  of  any  thing  than  of  religious  beliefs  and 
ceremonies.     Equally  true   is   it   that   man   has   a   longing   for 


58  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

immortality,  and  a  perpetual  craving  for  knowledge  of  the  here- 
after that  awaits  him.  These  things  being  true,  if  we  assume 
that  there  is  an  Infinite  Intelligence,  wise  and  good,  who  is  the 
Author  of  our  being,  a  revelation  of  the  will  of  that  Creator 
seems  a  most  reasonable  assumption,  if  not  indeed  a  very 
demand  of  reason.  Such  a  revelation  being  clearly  possible, 
manifestly  desirable,  and  absolutely  necessary  in  order  that  man 
may  realize  the  highest  good  of  which  his  moral  and  spiritual 
faculties  render  him  capable,  we  should  come  to  the  serious 
investigation  of  this  momentous  question  expecting  to  find  a 
revelation  made  through  individuals  of  the  race  supernaturally 
guided  for  that  purpose. 

If  one  were  to  happen  upon  a  piece  of  mechanism  unlike  any 
he  had  before  seen,  he  might  be  helped  to  understand  its  object 
and  its  value  by  learning  when,  and  where,  and  by  whom  it  was 
constructed ;  but  these  items  of  information  would  be  far  less 
satisfactory  than  that  which  would  come  from  an  investigation 
of  the  structure  and  capabilities  of  the  mechanism.  From  the 
inechanism  itself  would  he  determine  whether  it  were  a  phono- 
graph, a  chronometer,  or  a  musical  instrument.  So,  principally 
and  ultimately,  the  conclusion  we  reach  in  regard  to  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  Scriptures  must  depend  on  what  we  find  the  Scriptures 
to  be,  and  what  they  are  capable  of  doing  for  man.  Given  the 
Scriptures  as  we  have  them,  and  the  known  capabilities  of  the 
human  mind,  can  the  Scriptures  be  the  product  of  uninspired 
mind  ?  Given  man's  moral  and  spiritual  nature,  and  his  need  in 
view  of  his  own  consciousness  of  being  in  a  fallen  state,  is  the 
Bible  fundamentally  in  accord  with  his  constitution,  and  will  it 
restore  him  to  the  highest  and  happiest  manhood  of  which  he  is 
capable  ?  Practically,  Christianity  is  a  daily,  persistent  miracle 
of  salvation  from  sin  through  the  power  of  the  Cross,  bringing 
peace  and  comfort  and  hope  in  prospect  of  a  better  and  endless 
life  beyond  the  present  unsatisfactory  environment  of  mortal 
life.     Can  this  system  of  salvation  have  originated  in  the  con- 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  59 

ception  of  unaided  human  reason  ?  One  of  the  brightest  intel- 
lects of  England  has  said,  "  If  the  mind  be  vigorous  and  sane,  it 
is  incomparably  easier  to  admit  the  divinity  of  Christ  than  to 
reject  it,  and  read  the  Gospels  without  being  perplexed  and  con- 
founded." So,  as  it  seems  to  us,  we  may  justly  say  of  the 
Scriptures,  a  series  of  writings  given  to  the  world  through  the 
long  interval  of  fifteen  hundred  j^ears,  yet  all  harmoniously 
blending  in  one  grand  system  developed  as  the  ages  passed,  and 
revealing  a  grand  consummation  to  which  all  parts  are  conspir- 
ing, it  is  incomparably  easier  to  accept  them  as  the  products  of 
minds  divinely  guided,  than  to  account  for  them  on  any  other 
hypothesis. 

What  are  usually  styled  the  "  evidences  of  Christianity " 
embrace  a  great  variety  of  proofs  of  the  inspiration  of  the 
Scriptures,  and  these  proofs  have  been,  and  to  the  end  of  time 
will  continue  to  be,  cumulative.  With  a  better  understanding  of 
man's  own  nature,  of  the  world  about  him,  of  the  adaptation  of 
the  Bible  to  his  need,  and  of  the  unfolding  of  the  divine  purpose 
revealed  in  the  Bible,  will  come  increased  conviction  of  its  har- 
mony with  all  truth  and  of  its  divine  origin  and  mission.  Its 
inspiration  has  been  argued  from  the  claims  of  its  writers  to 
inspiration;  from  the  fulfillment  of  prophecies  contained 
therein;  from  the  many  miracles  wrought  by  Christ  in  the 
presence  of  numerous  competent  witnesses;  from  the  unity  of 
its  teachings ;  from  its  spotless  morality ;  from  the  moral  char- 
acter of  its  writers;  from  its  blessed  effects  upon  individuals, 
society,  and  nations ;  from  the  dignity  of  its  style  and  the  sub- 
limity of  its  language ;  from  the  correspondence  between  its 
teachings  and  what  is  called  natural  religion  ;  from  the  inherent 
power  of  Christianity  to  propagate  itself;  from  the  absolute  moral 
excellence  of  the  Founder  of  Christianity,  who  was  the  fulfill- 
ment of  the  types  and  prophecies  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  from 
his  life,  teachings,  work,  death,  and  resurrection,  which  are  the 
burden  of  the  revelation  of  the  New  Testament. 


6o  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

Upon  every  one  of  these  "evidences"  volumes  have  been 
written,  as  also  upon  others  not  here  enumerated.  The  last 
specified,  or  what  we  may  designate  "Christ's  testimony  to 
Christianity,"  is  the  central  idea  with  which  all  must  stand,  or  all 
be  abandoned  as  fable  or  imposture.  Spinoza,  the  Pantheistic 
Jew,  of  Amsterdam,  perceived  its  logical  relation  to  the  system  of 
Christianity  when  he  declared,  "If  I  could  persuade  myself  that 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  wrought  one  miracle,  that  he  raised  the  dead, 
for  instance,  I  would  dash  my  system  to  pieces,  and  at  once  ac- 
cept the  belief  of  common  Christianity."  Christ  is  the  perpetual 
unanswerable  testimony  to  Christianity,  and  thereby  to  the  in- 
spiration of  the  Bible.  Veiled  in  flesh  that  he  might  tabernacle 
with  men,  and  pour  into  their  souls  his  own  thoughts  and  ten- 
der sympathies,  at  the  appointed  time  Christ  steps  from  the 
bosom  of  eternity  upon  the  platform  of  earth,  and  starts  the 
world  upon  a  new  career  of  thought  and  feeling  and  action. 
"  One  God,  one  Messiah,  one  Humanity !  the  whole  race  occupying 
one  broad  level  of  moral  equality,  with  no  recognized  distinction 
in  the  sight  of  heaven  but  that  of  personal  character  !  And  yet 
this  initial  Idea  of  the  new  Era,  so  intensely  hated,  so  simple 
that  a  child's  mind  can  apprehend  it  when  once  stated,  shining 
by  its  own  light,  touched  and  roused  at  once  the  popular  heart, 
the  common  conscience,  the  universal  reason  and  judgment  of 
mankind,  so  as  to  win  conviction,  to  revolutionize  opinion,  to 
uplift  and  reconstruct  individual  and  social  character  throughout 
every  rank  and  class  of  men  and  women,  from  the  highest  to  the 
lowest,  from  the  center  of  the  metropolis  to  the  hut  of  the  wil- 
derness. And  so  onward  from  that  day  to  the  present,  this 
Messianic  Idea  has  developed  itself  in  history  as  the  chief  re- 
forming power  on  the  face  of  the  earth."  * 

"  How  was  it,"  asks  the  author  of  the  foregoing  extract,  "  that 


*  Self-ivitnessing   Character  of  the    Ne-w    Testament,  by    Rev.    Wm. 
Hague,  D.D. 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CIIURCH.  6 1 

this  Galilean  fisherman,  who  had  so  lately  left  his  boats  and  nets, 
arose  so  quickly  to  this  eminence  as  the  teacher  and  prophet  of 
the  ages,  inculcating  in  a  few  words  the  07ie  prmciple  that,  des- 
pite the  mightiest  antagonisms,  has  been  the  life-power  of  the 
world's  progress  during  the  eighteen  intervening  centuries,  and 
is  recognized  at  once  as  the  living  force  of  the  present,  the  hope 
of  the  future? " 

To  this  question  no  infidel  has  been  able  to  frame  a  reply  at 
all  so  credible  as  that  given  by  St.  Peter  when,  before  the 
multitude  assembled  in  the  house  of  Cornelius  to  hear  of  the 
wonderful  words  of  Christ,  he  "  opened  his  mouth  and  said :  " 

"  Of  a  truth  I  perceive  that  God  is  no  respecter  of  persons, 
but  in  every  nation  he  that  feareth  him  and  worketh  righteous- 
ness is  accepted  with  him.  The  word,  which  God  scut  unto  the 
childre7i  of  Israel,  preaching  peace  by  Jesus  Christ  (he  is  Lord  of 
all),  that  word  ye  know,  which  was  published  throughout  all 
Judea,  and  began  from  Galilee,  after  the  baptism  which  John 
preached ;  how  God  anointed  Jesus  of  Nazareth  with  the  Holy 
Ghost  and  tvith  power  ;  who  went  about  doing  good,  and  healino- 
all  that  were  oppressed  with  the  devil ;  for  God  was  with  him. 
Him  God  raised  up  the  third  day  and  showed  him  openly.  And 
he  commanded  us  to  preach  unto  the  people,  and  to  testify  that 
it  is  he  which  was  ordained  of  God  to  be  the  judge  of  quick  and 
dead." — Acts  x.  35,  etc. 

We  can  not  give  too  much  prominence  to  the  thought  that 
Christ  is  the  most  convincing  testimony  to  Christianity,  and 
thereby  to  the  inspiration  of  the  Book  which  bears  to  the  world 
the  teachings  of  Christianity.  Never  do  the  pages  of  that  Book 
seem  so  luminous  with  inspiration  as  when  read  in  the  light  of 
the  Sun  of  Righteousness  viewed  in  his  life,  his  doctrine, 
and  his  functions  as  prophet,  priest,  and  king.  It  is  a  matter  of 
personal  experience  with  the  writer  that  the  arguments  which 
have  produced  the  profoundest  conviction  of  the  inspiration  of 
the  Scriptures,  have  been,  not  learned  homilies  on  the  authen- 


62  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

ticity  and  genuineness  of  the  several  books,  or  on  theories  of  in- 
spiration, but  plain  scriptural  sermons  exalting  Christ  in  his 
person  and  offices.  The  last  time  it  was  our  privilege  to  hear 
that  eloquent  and  earnest  minister  of  precious  memory  in  the 
Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church,  Rev.  A.  M.  Bryan,  D.D.,  his 
text,  John  x.  27  :  "  For  him  hath  God  the  Father  sealed,"  led  him 
to  discuss  the  divine  attestation  of  the  mission  of  Christ  as  the 
Redeemer  of  men,  which  attestation  the  speaker  found  in  the 
prophecies  fulfilled  in  Christ,  in  the  miracles  he  wrought,  in  the 
circumstances  of  his  death,  in  the  stupendous  fact  of  his  resur- 
rection, and  in  the  power  of  his  life  and  teachings  to  renew  a 
world  spiritually  dead,  all  of  which  was  presented  with  such 
clearness  and  such  fervor  as  to  beget  profound  conviction  in  his 
great  audience.  And  so,  as  it  seems  to  us,  will  it  ever  be  that 
he  who  has  most  of  Christ  in  his  argument  will  have  most  power 
to  convince  men  that  the  Bible  is  inspired,  and  that  Christianity 
is  of  divine  origin. 

If  we  admit  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,  it  follows  that 
we  accept  them  as  an  infallible  rule  of  faith  and  practice.  It  is 
for  the  specific  purpose  of  instructing  man  as  to  what  he  shall 
believe  concerning  God,  and  how,  as  a  rational  creature  respon- 
sible for  his  conduct,  he  shall  behave  toward  his  fellows  and  his 
Creator,  that  this  supernatural  revelation  was  made.  Embodied  • 
in  written  language,  that  revelation  has  been  transmitted 
through  the  centuries,  and  will  be  transmitted  to  the  end  of 
time,  and  through  the  printing-press  these  Scriptures  may 
now  find  their  way  to  every  inhabitant  of  earth.  It  is  altogether 
a  thing  possible  that  "  the  earth  shall  be  full  of  the  knowledge 
of  the  Lord,  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea." 

The  second  item  in  the  Confession,  which  declares  that  "  the 
authority  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  depends  not  upon  the  testi- 
mony of  any  man  or  Church,  but  upon  God  alone,"  is  retained, 
in  abbreviated  form,  from  the  Westminster  Confession.  It  is 
designed  to  declare  the  doctrine  of  the  Reformation  and  the 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHUkCH.  65 

"boast  of  Protestantism  "  that  every  man  should  read  and  inter- 
pret the  Scriptures  for  himself.  Catholicism  insists  that  an  in- 
fallible Church  is  the  source  of  all  authoritative  interpretation. 
It  makes  "  the  Scriptures  a  product  of  the  Church,  while  in  fact 
the  Church  is  a  product  of  the  Scriptures."  Individual  inde- 
pendence and  individual  responsibility  are  of  the  very  essence 
of  Christianity,  and  its  legitimate  product  everywhere.  Bondage 
to  "  tradition  "  (things  handed  down)  has  been  one  of  the  heaviest 
yokes  on  the  neck  of  humanity,  and  especially  with  respect  to 
religion.  When  Christ  was  upon  earth  the  Jews  were  serving 
the  " traditions  of  the  elders;"  between  Roman  Catholics  and 
the  word  of  God  stand  the  "  traditions  of  the  Church  ;  "  and 
with  too  many  Protestants  there  is  manifest  bondage  to  tradi- 
tions of  confessions,  time  honored  standards,  great  names,  the 
fathers,  etc.  There  is  a  conservatism  that  is  healthful,  and 
a  respect  for  the  fathers  that  is  becoming,  and  creeds,  commen- 
taries, decrees  of  councils,  and  systems  of  theology  may  be 
helpful  to  the  inquirer  after  truth,  but  beyond  and  above  all 
these  stand  the  Scriptures,  to  which  every  man  should  come  for 
himself  under  a  sense  of  solemn  obligation  to  receive  and  defend 
the  truth  as  he  believes  it  taught  therein. 

The  third  item  of  the  section  teaches  : — 

{a)  That  the  Scriptures  are  a  complete  rule,  as  revealing  the 
whole  counsel  of  God  so  far  as  it  is  needful  for  man  to  know 
that  counsel  in  order  to  secure  his  own  salvation  and  rightly  to 
discharge  the  practical  duties  of  life,  so  as  to  glorify  God 
therein. 

{b)  That  to  this  completed  revelation  nothing  is  to  be  at  any 
time  added  by  man  or  from  the  traditions  of  men. 

(c)  That  "the  inward  illumination  of  the  Spirit  of  God"  is 
necessary  for  "  the  saving  understanding  of  such  things  as  are 
revealed  in  the  word." 

Cumberland  Presbyterians  believe  that  this  illumination  of  the 
Spirit  necessary  to  the  saving  understanding  of  the  Scriptures  is 


64  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

given  to  every  man.  As  in  Adam  all  died  unto  spiritual  good, 
so  in  Christ  are  all  made  alive  to  the  ability  to  hear,  understand 
and  believe  the  gospel.  This  Spirit  of  illumination  is  given  to 
reprove  the  world  of  sin,  of  righteousness,  and  of  judgment; 
and  leaves  without  reasonable  excuse  all  hearers  of  the  word 
who  reject  it,  since  by  submitting  themselves  to  the  bestowed 
Spiritual  illumination — a  gift  co-extensive  with  the  loss  occa- 
sioned by  the  fall — they  would  be  guided,  through  the  instru- 
mentality of  this  word,  to  faith,  obedience,  holiness,  and  heaven. 

The  fourth  item  contains  what  it  denominates  "  the  best  rule 
of  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures,"  namely,  "  the  comparison 
of  scripture  with  scripture.  " 

This  rule  assumes  that  the  Scriptures  are  a  grand  unity,  a  sys- 
tem of  truth  harmonious  in  all  its  parts.  As  the  Westminster 
Confession  declares,  "  when  there  is  a  question  about  the  true 
and  full  sense  of  any  Scripture  (which  [sense]  is  not  manifold, 
but  one),  it  must  be  searched  and  known  by  other  places  that 
speak  more  plainly."  Again  and  again  in  the  history  of  inter- 
pretation do  we  see  the  mischievous  effects  of  building  a  system 
of  dogmatic  theology  on  a  passage  or  two  of  the  Bible  taken 
without  reference  to  their  logical  relation  to  the  scheme  of  re- 
vealed truth,  and  then  proceeding  to  interpret  the  Bible  by  this 
preconceived  theological  system.  Canon  Farrar,  in  his  Early 
Days  of  Christianity,  charges  Calvin  with  "  explaining  away  "  a 
passage  that  favors  Arminianism,  instead  of  "explaining"  it, 
appropriately  adding,  "  but  the  Calvinists  had  no  monopoly  in 
the  distortion  of  the  plain  meaning  of  the  sacred  words — an 
error  which  belongs,  alas !  to  all  sects  and  all  religious  partisans 
alike." 

An  open  Bible  for  all  the  world,  is  the  genius  of  Protestant- 
ism. As  in  the  Pentecostal  baptism  the  disciples  were  endowed 
with  miraculous  power  "  to  speak  with  other  tongues,  as  the 
Spirit  gave  them  utterance,"  in  order  that  Parthians  and  Medes 
and  Elamites  and  all  other  nationalities  present  might  hear  in 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  65 

their  own  tongues  the  wonderful  works  of  God,  so  is  it  mani- 
festly the  divine  purpose  that  an  open  Bible,  revealing  God,  and 
the  way  of  salvation  through  a  Redeemer,  shall  be  given  to  all 
the  inhabitants  of  earth,  and  in  the  language  wherein  all  may 
read  for  themselves.  Thus  building  on  the  word  of  God,  with 
their  brief  Confession  outlining  only  the  fundamental  doctrines 
of  that  word,  Cumberland  Presbyterians  do  heartily  subscribe 
the  sentiment  of  Chillingworth,  "  The  Bible  !  the  Bible  !  the  re- 
ligion of  Protestants."  Never,  seemingly,  was  the  power  of  the 
open  Bible  more  clearly  perceived  or  more  forcibly  expressed, 
than  by  a  writer  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  who  pro- 
nounced the  English  Bible  the  "stronghold"  of  what  he  chose 
to  designate,  referring  to  Protestantism,  the  "  heresy  in  this 
country."  "It  is  a  part,"  he  says,  "of  the  national  mind,  the 
anchor  of  the  national  seriousness.  Nay,  it  is  worshiped  with  a 
positive  idolatry.  The  memory  of  the  dead  passes  into  it.  The 
potent  traditions  of  childhood  are  stereotyped  in  its  verses. 
The  power  of  all  the  griefs  and  trials  of  a  man  is  hidden  beneath 
its  words.  It  is  the  representative  of  his  best  moments ;  and  all 
that  there  has  been  about  him,  of  soft,  and  gentle,  and  pure,  and 
penitent,  and  good  speaks  to  him  out  of  his  English  Bible.  It  is 
his  sacred  thing  which  doubt  has  never  dimmed  and  controversy 
never  soiled.  It  has  been  to  him  all  along  as  the  voice  of  his 
guardian  angel ;  and  in  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land  there 
is  not  a  Protestant  with  one  spark  of  religiousness  about  him, 
whose  spiritual  biography  is  not  in  his  Protestant  Bible." 
5 


66  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 


CHAPTER  II. 

OF   THE   HOLY   TRINITY. 

"  Oection  I. — There  is  but  one  living  and  true  God,  a  self- 
existent  Spirit,  infinite,  eternal,  and  unchangeable  in  his 
being,  wisdom,  power,  holiness,  justice,  goodness,  and  truth. 

"  Section  2. — God  has  all  life,  glory,  goodness,  and  blessed- 
ness in  himself;  not  standing  in  need  of  any  creatures  which  he 
has  made,  nor  deriving  any  essential  glory  from  them ;  and  has 
most  sovereign  dominion  over  them  to  do  whatsoever  he  may 
please. 

"  Section  3. — In  the  unity  of  the  Godhead  there  are  three 
persons  of  one  substance,  power,  and  eternity :  God  the  Father, 
Son,  and  Holy  Spirit." 

The  answers  to  the  fourth,  fifth,  and  sixth  questions  in  the 
Catechism  embody  the  same  doctrine  as  the  foregoing  sections 
of  the  Confession. 

These  sections  assert  or  imply  the  following  propositions : — 

1.  The  existence  of  a  being  called  God, 

2.  That  there  is  but  one  such  being. 

3.  That  God  is  a  self-existent  Spirit. 

4.  That  he  is,  in  his  being  and  attributes,  infinite,  eternal,  and 
unchangeable. 

5.  That  God  possesses  in  himself  all  perfection  absolute  and 
relative,  is  completely  independent  of  all  creatures,  and  has  sov- 
ereign dominion  over  them. 

6.  That  the  Godhead  exists  in  Trinity,  implying : 

(a)  Three  persons  of  one  substance,  power,  and  eternity. 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  67 

{b)  That  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  are  each 
alike  truly  this  one  God. 

I.  The  existence  of  the  being  we  call  God. 

By  logical  sequence  of  parts,  systematic  theology  will  always 
start  with,  the  subject  of  the  existence  and  attributes  of  God. 
Belief  in  the  existence  of  God  as  a  moral  Ruler  of  the  universe 
is  fundamental  to  every  thing  that  can  be  denominated  a  sj^stem. 
of  religion.  So  begins  the  most  ancient  of  all  creeds :  "I  be- 
lieve in  God  the  Father  Almighty."  So  the  Nicene  Creed:  "I 
believe  in  one  God,  Maker  of  heaven  and  earth,  and  all  things 
visible  and  invisible."  Similarly  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  of  the 
Church  of  England  give  the  first  place  to  this  section : 

"  There  is  but  one  living  and  true  God,  everlasting,  without 
body,  parts,  or  passions;  of  infinite  power,  wisdom,  and  good- 
ness ;  the  Maker  and  Preserver  of  all  things  visible  and  invisible. 
And  in  unity  of  this  Godhead  there  be  three  Persons  of  one 
substance,  power,  and  eternity :  the  Father,  the  Son,  and .  the 
Holy  Ghost." 

No  peculiarity  of  the  Scriptures  is  more  striking,  than  the 
clearness,  fullness,  and  confidence,  v/ith  which  they  reveal  God, 
not,  indeed,  formally  presenting  any  argument  in  proof  of  his 
existence,  but  everywhere  assuming  it,  and  declaring  that  only 
"  the  fool  hath  said  in  his  heart,  there  is  no  God."  The  sublime 
declaration  opening  Genesis,  "  In  the  beginning  God  created  the 
heaven  and  the  earth,"  does  not  declare,  but  assumes  the  exist- 
ence of  God,  and  this  fundamental  idea  of  God  is  carried  forward 
to  the  closing  sentences  of  St.  John's  Revelation,  correlating  to 
itself  all  the  other  doctrines  of  the  Scriptures.  This  veiy  feat- 
ure of  the  Scriptures  seems  to  us  a  powerful  argument  for  the 
existence  of  God — that  an  invisible  superior  intelligence  poured 
upon  the  world,  through  the  minds  of  the  sacred  writers,  this 
flood  of  light  on  a  subject  which  so  radically  concerns  the  be- 
havior, the  hopes,  and  the  destiny  of  man. 

Again,  since  it  must  be  admitted  that  man  can  not  foresee 


68  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

future  events  which  depend  on  contingencies,  if  the  Scriptures 
contain  prophecies  that  have  been  fulfilled,  they  thereby  afford 
proof  of  the  existence  of  some  intelligence  superior  to  man,  and 
endowed  with  prescience.  In  like  manner  if  the  Scriptures 
establish  beyond  question  that  a  miracle  took  place — that  is  to 
say,  that  an  event  occurred  which  could  not  be  an  effect  of  what 
is  called  the  "  course  of  nature,"  then  a  power  above  nature  must 
be  assumed.  In  these  and  other  waj'S  the  Scriptures  may  be 
said  to  afford  proof  of  the  existence  of  God. 

The  proof-texts  cited  under  the  first  section  are  very  significant 
of  the  confidence  and  clearness  with  which  the  sacred  writers 
assume  the  being  and  attributes  of  the  Jehovah  of  the  Bible : 

Deut.  vi.  4 :  Hear,  O  Israel :  The  Lord  our  God  is  one  lyord. 
John  iv.  24 :  God  is  a  Spirit :  and  they  that  worship  him  must 
worship  him  in  spirit  and  in  truth.  Ex.  iii.  14:  And  God  said 
unto  Moses,  I  AM  THAT  I  AM :  and  he  said.  Thus  shalt  thou 
say  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  I  AM  hath  sent  me  unto  you. 
I  Tim.  i.  jy:  Now  unto  the  King  eternal,  immortal,  invisible, 
the  only  wise  God,  be  honor  and  glory  for  ever  and  ever.  Rom. 
xvi.  27  :  To  God  only  wise  be  glory  through  Jesus  Christ  for 
ever.     Amen. 

Rational  theism  embraces  what  may  be  known,  without  a 
divine  revelation,  as  to  the  existence  and  attributes  of  God,  and 
his  relation  to  the  world.  On  one  extreme,  some  have  held  that 
aside  from  an  antecedent  supernatural  communication  of  the 
idea  of  God,  man  could  never  have  conceived  that  idea  from  the 
study  of  himself  and  the  world  in  which  he  lives.  Rev.  J. 
Loughran,  the  first  president  of  Waynesburg  College,  a  man  of 
very  extensive  reading,  and  a  thinker  of  no  ordinary  ability, 
thus  taught  his  classes,  and  with  zealous  assurance  of  the  cor- 
rectness of  his  theory.  Assuming  the  natural  inability  of  the 
human  mind  to  frame  even  the  conception  of  a  Supreme  Being, 
he  drew  from  the  widely  prevalent  belief  in  such  a  Being  a  proof 
of  an  original  revelation,  and  thereby  of  the  existence  of  God, 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  69 

holding  that  polytheism  and  other  erroneous  theistic  beliefs  are 
but  corruptions  of  the  primitive  revelation  given  to  the  parents 
of  the  race.  Whetiher  or  not  the  various  notions  of  the  exist- 
ence and  attributes  of  a  divine  being,  found  to-day  among  the 
nations  destitute  of  the  Bible,  are  to  be  regarded  as  "broken 
and  scattered  raj^s  of  original  revelation,"  it  is  an  interesting 
and  significant  fact  that  the  oldest  peoples  of  the  world  seem  to 
have  been  monotheists  before  they  were  polytheists.  Of  ancient 
Egypt,  M.  Emanuel  Rouge  says  :  "  The  first  characteristic  of  the 
religion  is  the  unity  of  God,  most  energetically  expressed :  God, 
One,  Sole,  and  Only ;  no  others  with  Him.  He  is  the  only  Being 
living  in  truth."  So  a  competent  scholar  tells  us  that  the  words 
significant  of  a  divine  being  "  show  the  religion  of  the  ancient 
Chinese  as  a  monotheism.  .  .  .  Five  thousand  years  ago  the 
Chinese  were  monotheists."  And  so  archaeologists  tell  us  that 
"  in  the  period  that  lay  behind  the  Homeric  poems  and  the 
Vedas  and  the  earliest  Gothic  and  Scandinavian  legends,  when 
Greek  and  Roman,  Indian,  Celt,  and  Teuton,  were  still  a  single 
people,  a  single  name  for  God  was  in  use." 

Positivism,  as  represented  by  Comte,  Herbert  Spencer,  and 
others,  which  teaches  that  "  the  only  principle  of  certitude  is  the 
senses,"  denies,  not  only  man's  ability  to  derive  from  the  natural 
world  any  knowledge  of  the  existence  of  God,  but  also  his 
ability  to  receive  such  knowledge  by  supernatural  revelation, 
and  teaches  that  man  can  know  nothing  but  the  phenomena  of 
the  world  about  him,  and  the  laws  which  govern  them. 

On  the  other  extreme  are  those  rationalists  who  assert  that 
from  the  light  of  nature  man  may  learn  all  that  it  is  necessary  to 
know  about  God's  being  and  will,  holding  that  the  teachings  of 
any  supernatural  revelation  that  may  have  been  made  are  useful 
only  because  the  teaching  of  nature  is  neglected.  In  its  ulti- 
mate phase  it  denies  revelation  entirely,  claiming  that  reason  is 
adequate  to  account  for  every  thing  seemingly  supernatural  in 
relig-ion. 


JO  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

The  first  Confession  of  Faith  adopted  by  Cumberland  Presby- 
terians begins  the  chapter  on  the  Scriptures  with  the  assumption 
that  "  the  light  of  nature,  and  the  works  of  creation  and  provi- 
dence, do  so  far  manifest  the  goodness,  wisdom,  and  power  of 
God,  as  to  leave  men  inexcusable."  In  this  opening  sentence  of 
our  Confession  is  our  first  doctrinal  departure  from  the  West- 
minster Confession,  w^hich  latter  adds,  to  the  words  just 
quoted,  this  clause,  "  Yet  they  are  not  sufi&cient  to  give  that 
knowledge  of  God,  and  of  his  will,  which  is  necessary  unto  sal- 
vation." The  two  declarations  combined  leave  those  who  have 
only  the  light  of  nature  in  the  hopeless  condition  of  having 
knowledge  enough  to  render  them  inexcusable,  but  too  little  to 
render  salvation  possible.  Some  of  the  earnest  advocates  of 
revision  of  the  Westminster  Standards  at  the  present  time  urge 
the  same  modification  at  this  point  that  was  made  at  the  start  by 
Cumberland  Presbyterians,  looking,  as  do  other  proposed  changes, 
to  the  elimination  of  the  sterner  aspects  of  Calvinism.  The 
passage  in  Rom.  ii.  12-16  unquestionably  teaches  that  it  is  possi- 
ble for  the  Gentiles  who  have  not  the  law  (the  revealed  will  of 
God)  to  do  by  the  guidance  of  reason  and  conscience  the  things 
required  by  the  law,  and  thereb}'  to  attain  to  merciful  accept- 
ance, through  Christ's  work  in  behalf  of  all  mankind. 

That  man  may  attain  the  idea  of  the  being  and  the  moral 
attributes  of  God  by  the  study  of  the  world  about  him,  and  to 
such  an  extent  as  to  render  him  accountable,  seems  to  be  clearly 
taught  in  many  places  in  the  Scriptures.  The  passage  in  Ro- 
mans i.  19-23  declares  that  the  reason  why  the  wrath  of  God  is  re- 
vealed from  heaven  against  the  ungodliness  and  unrighteousness 
of  the  heathen  world,  then  so  sunken  in  abominable  iniquities, 
is,  "  Because  that  which  can  be  known  of  God  is  manifested  in 
their  hearts,  God  himself  having  shown  it  to  them ;  for  his  eter- 
nal power  and  Godhead,  though  they  be  invisible,  yet  are  seen 
ever  since  the  world  was '  made,  being  understood  by  his  v/orks, 
that  they  (who  despised  him)  might  have  no  excuse;  because, 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  7  l- 

although  they  knew  God,  they  glorified  him  not  as  God,  nor 
gave  him  thanks,  but  in  their  reasonings  they  went  astray 
after  vanity,  and  their  senseless  heart  was  darkened.  Calling 
themselves  wise,  they  were  turned  into  fools,  and  forsook  the 
glory  of  the  imperishable  God  for  idols  graven  in  the  likeness 
of  perishable  men,  or  of  birds  and  beasts,  and  creeping 
things." 

So  when  he  stood  in  the  midst  of  Mars'  hill,  Paul  addressed  the 
Athenian  philosophers,  not  as  "  too  superstitious,"  according  to 
our  common  version,  but  as  in  all  things  "  religiously  disposed," 
reminding  them,  however,  that  the  "unknown  god"  to  whom 
they  had  erected  an  altar,  and  whom  they  ignorantly  worshiped, 
is  "  God  who  made  the  world,  and  all  things  therein,"  and  that 
"in  him  we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our  being,"  skillfully 
enforcing  his  doctrine  by  appealing  to  a  sentiment  of  their  own 
poets,  that  men  are  the  offspring  of  God.  Of  two  poets  to  whom 
Paul  is  here  supposed  to  allude,  one  is  Cleanthes,  a  Stoic  philos- 
opher, who  died  about  three  hundred  j'ears  before  this  remarka- 
ble appeal  by  Paul  to  the  Stoic  and  Epicurean  philosophers 
encountered  at  Athens.  What  is  known  as  The  Hynm  of  Clean- 
thes, composed  in  honor  of  Jupiter,  abounds  in  sentiments  so 
elevated  and  so  nearly  Christian  as  almost  to  compel  belief  that 
inspiration  was  its  source.  The  following  extract  embraces  the 
sentiment  ascribed  by  Paul  to  their  poets : 

"  O  under  various  sacred  names  adored ! 
Divinity  supreme  !  all-potent  Lord ! 
Author  of  nature  !  whose  unbounded  sway 
And  legislative  power  all  things  obey  ! 
Majestic  Jove  !  all  hail !  To  thee  belong 
The  suppliant  prayer  and  tributary'  song, 
To  thee  from  all  thy  mortal  offspring  due. 
From  thee  we  came,  from  thee  our  being  drew. 
Whatever  lives  and  moves,  great  Sire,  is  thine, 
Embodied  portion  of  the  soul  divine." 

—  Translation  by  Gilbert  West,  LL.D. 

The  following  lines  not  only  make  the  human  will  the  source 


72  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

of  evil,  but  seem  to  suggest  the  poet's  faith  in  a  grand  renova- 
tion through  the  divine  goodness : 

"  Vice  is  the  act  of  man,  by  passion  tossed, 
And  in  the  shoreless  sea  of  folly  lost. 
But  thou  vvhat  vice  disorders  canst  compose, 
And  profit  by  the  malice  of  thy  foes ; 
So  blending  good  with  evil,  fair  with  foul, 
As  thence  to  model  one  harmonious  whole. 
One  universal  law  of  truth  and  right." 

Paul  declares  that  through  faith  "  we  understand  that  the 
worlds  were  framed  by  the  Word  of  God ;  "  but  David,  gazing 
upon  the  vastly  mult^'plied  splendors  of  the  sky  as  seen  through 
the  crystal  atmosphere  of  the  hills  of  Judea,  rapturously  ex- 
claims, "  The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  firma- 
ment showeth  his  handiv>^ork  !  "  So  in  every  age  the  most  gifted 
and  most  thoughtful  men  have  studied  the  goodly  frame  of  the 
universe,  and  from  the  dependence,  harmony,  and  manifest 
adaptations  of  its  parts  inferred  the  existence,  wisdom,  and 
power  of  an  infinite  Intelligence  presiding  over  and  directing  it. 
That  this  universe  should  be  the  result  of  an  accidental  combi- 
nation of  atoms,  or  of  any  forces  not  guided  by  intelligence,  and 
hence  of  necessity  working  without  design,  seemed  to  poets, 
philosophers,  and  moralists  a  thing  utterly  incredible.  Thus 
Cicero,  in  his  treatise  on  "  The  Nature  of  the  Gods,"  declares: 
"  I  can  not  conceive  whj'  the  man  who  thinks  this  possible, 
should  not  also  imagine  that,  if  innumerable  forms  of  letters, 
whether  of  gold,  or  of  any  other  kind,  should  be  thrown  to- 
gether into  some  receptacle,  there  could  be  accidentally  made 
out  of  these,  when  shaken  out  upon  the  ground,  annals  capable 
of  being  read ;  whereas  I  doubt  whether  chance  could  effect 
any  thing  of  the  kind,  even  a  single  verse.  But  if  a  concurrence 
of  atoms  can  produce  a  world,  wh}'  not  a  portico,  a  house,  or  a 
temple?  which  would  be  less  laborious,  and  indeed  far  easier." 

Nicole,  of  France,  a  profound  thinker  of  the  Cartesian  school, 
wrote  in  1670:  "I  am  persuaded  that  these  natural  proofs  do 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  73 

not  cease  to  be  sound.  .  .  .  Whatever  efforts  atheists  may  ihake 
to  efface  the  impression  that  the  sight  of  this  great  world  forms 
naturally  in  all  men,  that  there  is  a  God,  the  creator  of  it,  they 
can  not  entirely  stifle  it,  so  strongly  and  deeply  is  it  rooted  in 
our  minds.  We  need  not  force  ourselves  to  yield  to  it,  but  we 
must  do  violence  to  ourselves  to  contradict  it.  Reason  has  only  to 
follow  its  natural  instinct,  to  persuade  itself  that  there  is  a  God." 

We  have  dwelt  upon  this  phase  of  the  proof  from  natural  relig- 
ion in  order  to  come  more  intelligently  to  the  status  of  the  argu- 
ment as  it  is  to-day.  Men  are  ready  to  saj^  "  We  know  that  a 
watch  must  have  been  made  by  an  artisan,  .nd  that  a  house  im- 
plies a  builder ;  but  science  has  taught  us  that  the  world  was  not 
made  as  a  watch  is  fabricated,  or  as  a  house  is  built."  And  so 
they  tell  us  the  "  technic  "  theory  is  a  failure,  for  no  agent  outside 
of  and  above  nature  has  worked  upon  it  as  a  mechanic  does  on  the 
materials  which  he  fashions  and  combines  into  a  house ;  but  an 
energy  inherent  in  matter  has  developed  all  things,  man  himself, 
into  what  they  are.  The  final  stage  of  this  doctrine  is  the  reso- 
lution of  the  universe  into  a  sum  total  of  matter,  force,  and 
motion.  In  the  language  of  another,  the  problem  is  thus  stated 
and  solved : 

"  The  v.'orld  now  is— once  was  not ;  man  and  his  works  are — 
once  were  not.  How  and  why  did  they  come  to  be  ?  Nature  is 
uniform,  works  everywhere  from  within,  grows,  does  not  con- 
struct, bears  and  becomes,  does  not  manufacture,  and  science, 
as  her  interpreter,  expresses  her  method  or  process  by  develop- 
ment, evolution.  The  forms  of  inorganic  matter  have  been 
developed  by  the  operation  of  necessary  mechanical  laws ;  the 
forms  of  organic  life  have  been  evolved  by  the  operation  of  nat- 
ural forces.  Variation,  the  struggle  for  existence,  the  survival 
of  the  fittest,  explain  the  endless  varieties  of  organized  beings 
that  have  lived  and  are  living  upon  the  earth.  The  interactive 
play  of  organism  and  environment,  the  creature  and  the  me- 
dium in  which  it  lives,  has  resulted  in  man  and  his  works." 


74  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

Admit  that  the  theory  stated  in  the  foregoing  paragraph  be 
established,  that  "  evolution  "  expresses  the  process  by  which 
the  world  came  to  be  as  it  is — a  thing  not  at  all  proved — and  the 
only  result  is  that  we  must  modify  our  notion  of  the  relation  of 
a  Creator  to  the  world.  Not  in  the  least  does  evolution  diminish 
the  demand  of  reason  for  an  intelligent  cause  of  the  world  as  it 
is.  Evolution  claims  to  show  us  the  mode  in  which  a  cause  has 
acted,  but  not  the  cause.  Evolution  is  a  theory  of  a  victhod  by 
which  ends  have  been  reached,  not  of  a  cause  which  operated  to 
produce  those  ends.  The  main  question  still  recurs,  to  which 
evolution  proposes  no  answer.  Whence  came  the  thing  called 
nature,  and  the  v/onderful  potencies  inherent  therein?  What 
started  and  directed  the  long  process  of  evolution  ?  What  deter- 
mined the  end  to  which  the  long  evolving  process  should  work, 
as  that  end  is  seen  in  the  present  goodly  frame  of  this  world 
with  its  countless  harmonies,  adaptations,  and  final  causes? 
Could  chance,  through  the  mode  or  process  called  evolution, 
have  produced  the  system  we  call  nature?  Evolutionists  them- 
selves have  not  been  slow  to  perceive  that  their  theory  does  not 
remove  the  demand  of  reason  for  a  first  cause,  though  many  of 
them  try  to  express  that  cause  in  terms  seemingly  chosen  to 
conceal  the  God  their  reason  demands.  There  is  a  story  in  Plu- 
tarch to  the  effect  that  a  satyr  strove  to  stand  a  dead  man  up- 
right upon  his  feet,  but  gave  over  after  many  vain  endeavors, 
sajdng,  Deest  aliqidd  hitiis — something  is  lacking  within.  So  is 
it  with  a  universe  built  upon  any  theory  that  leaves  out  God-- 
something  is  lacking  within,  because  of  which  lack  it  is  a  mo- 
tionless, dead  universe.  The  author  of  the  "  Origin  of  Species  '' 
felt  the  need  of  this  power,  and  confessed  its  presence  :  "  There 
is  grandeur  in  this  view  of  life,  with  its  several  powers  having 
been  originally  breathed  by  the  Creator  into  a  few  forms  or  one ; 
and  that  while  this  planet  has  gone  cycling  on  according  to  the 
fixed  law  of  gravity,  from  so  simple  a  beginning  endless  forms, 
most  beautiful  and  wonderful,  have  been  and  are  being  evolved." 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  75 

Whatever  may  be  the  truth  as  to  how  behef  in  the  existence 
of  a  Creator  originated,  it  is  unquestionable  that  this  behef, 
alread}^  in  the  mind,  is  developed,  modified,  strengthened  by  the 
study  of  ourselves  and  the  world  in  which  we  live.  Profound 
philosophers  ignorant  of,  or  indifferent  to,  the  teachings  of  the 
Bible,  and  devout  Christians  who  base  their  faith  implicitly  on 
the  Bible,  have  alike  experienced  and  confessed  their  deepened 
sense  of  the  presence  of  God  as  a  result  of  their  contemplation 
of  the  works  of  nature.  If  the  universe,  as  limited,  transient, 
and  therefore  necessarily  dependent,  compels  belief  in  a  change- 
less Being  on  whom  it  depends,  the  prevalence  of  design  or  final 
cause,  throughout  the  universe,  compels  belief  in  the  infinite  in- 
telligence of  this  changeless  Being.  Before  me  lies  a  w^atch,  a 
very  slight  knowledge  of  which  teaches  me  that  it  is  a  thing  that 
is  transient,  that  it  is  dependent,  that  it  must  have  had  a  begin- 
ning, that  it  could  not  have  produced  itself  Not  only  must  it  be 
"  wound-up "  daily  in  order  to  "  run,"  but  it  will  necessarily 
"  wear  out,"  or  cease  to  be  a  watch.  So  my  reason  asserts  again 
and  again  that  something  or  somebod}'  made  the  watch.  But 
the  watch  is  a  microcosm — a  miniature  cosmos.  What  is  true 
of  it  is  true  of  the  universe,  in  the  respect  in  which  I  ha\'e 
spoken.  The  insect  is  ephemeral,  the  flower  fades,  man  returns 
to  dust,  the  heavens  wax  old  as  doth  a  garment.  Something 
must  have  been  before  the  earth  and  the  world  were  formed, 
something  from  everlasting  to  everlasting. 

A  closer  survey  of  the  watch  convinces  me  that  it  not  only 
was  produced  by  some  cause,  but  that  it  was  made  for  a  purpose 
— that  a  design  existed  in  a  mind,  and  that  the  watch  is  but  the 
product  of  that  design ;  in  other  words  the  watch  must  have  had, 
not  only  efficient  cause,  but  that  a  faial  cause  determined  for 
what  it  should  exist.  As  a  whole,  it  is  ingeniously  contrived  to 
indicate  the  passage  of  time,  marking  the  flight  into  seconds, 
minutes,  hours.  Further  studj^  of  it  convinces  me  that  every 
part  of  it,  no  less  than  the  mechanism  as  a  whole,  exists  for  a 


76  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

purpose  that  was  first  in  the  mind  of  the  contriver,  and  I  am 
able  to  see  for  what  the  hands,  the  case,  the  dial,  the  crystal,  and 
every  wheel,  and  lever,  and  screw  are  as  they  are  and  in  the 
places  assigned  them.  What  is  true  of  the  watch  is  true  of 
every  work  of  man.  A  railroad  that  spans  a  continent,  and  the 
pen  with  which  this  sentence  is  written  alike  exist  for  a  final 
cause,  for  an  end  foreseen  as  desirable,  and  therefore  realized  by 
the  use  of  the  necessary'  means.  If  now  I  lift  my  thought  from 
my  pen  to  the  eye  that  guides  the  pen  across  the  page,  the 
numerous  and  varied  parts  of  the  eye,  and  their  wonderfully 
nice  adjustment  to  each  other  at  once  impress  me  that  it  is  a 
much  more  complicated  structure  than  the  simple  pen  in  my 
hand,  and  as  to  function,  that  of  the  ej^e  infinitely  transcends 
that  of  the  pen.  I  knozu  that  the  pen  was  made  for  the  purpose 
of  distributing  ink  in  forms  somewhat  resembling  the  letters  of 
the  alphabet,  and  I  knozu  that  the  eye  answers  the  wonderful  end 
of  a  mirror  to  bring  the  outer  world  under  immediate  cognizance 
by  my  soul,  so  that,  while  I  do  not  see  the  eye  itself  nor  any 
images  photographed  in  its  chamber,  I  do  "  see  "  the  table  before 
me,  the  books  upon  it,  the  houses  of  the  village,  the  distant  hills 
crowned  with  forest  trees,  and  still  more  distant  clouds  drifting 
away  to  the  east.  Must  I  then  not  believe  that  this  wonderful 
eye  was  made  for  a  purpose,  and  that  the  unconscious  forces 
which,  working  in  unconscious  matter,  however  long  the  time 
required  to  evolve  such  an  e3^e,  were  directed  by  an  intelligence 
which  first  conceived  and  then  purposed  to  construct  such  an 
organ  to  mirror  the  world  to  the  soul?  As  these  reflections 
engage  my  mind,  I  seem  to  myself  as  well  assured  that  the  world 
exhibits  design,  and  therefore  a  designer,  as  I  am  of  the  truth  of 
the  demonstrable  proposition,  that  the  sum  of  the  angles  in  a 
triangle  is  equivalent  to  two  right  angles.  As  I  go  on  reflecting 
on  the  wonderful  relation  the  eye  sustains  to  the  enjoyments  and 
the  practical  aifairs  of  life,  how  the  "  cloud-capt  towers,"  the 
"gorgeous  palaces"  and  all  the  other  magnificent  works  of  man 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  77 

could  never  have  been  but  for  the  marvelous  powers  of  this 
little  organ  called  the  eye,  I  say  to  myself,  Only  Infinite  Wisdom 
could  have  designed  and  formed  such  an  eye. 

Final  cause  implies  three  things :  (i)  An  end  foreseen,  (2)  a 
■determination  to  realize  it,  (5)  such  control  of  materials  and 
forces  as  will  realize  the  end  perceived  and  chosen.  Thus,  one 
"  studies  out "  a  beautiful  dwelling,  and  the  ideal  rests  in  his 
mind  for  a  time.  By  and  by  he  resolves  to  realize  his  ideal,  or  to 
build  just  such  a  house.  Then  comes  the  intelligent  control  of 
forces  in  their  application  to  wood,  iron,  stone,  etc.,  until,  the 
scaffolding  removed,  the  realized  ideal  delights  its  owner.  The 
onl}'  possible  alternative  to  final  cause,  or  design,  is  chance.  If 
a  hundred  brick  be  dumped  from  a  cart,  we  say  that  their  juxta- 
position in  the  pile  is  simply  a  matter  of  chance,  by  which  we 
mean  that  no  mind  controlled  their  motions  according  to  a  pre- 
determined order.  If  later  we  look  upon  the  same  brick  and 
find  them  disposed  in  a  pile  counting  2x5  x  10,  we  saj^  that 
"some  one  has  piled  them" — that  is,  has  controlled  their  juxta- 
position according  to  a  preconceived  plan. 

Now,  of  our  bodies  and  the  material  world  in  which  we  live, 
we  must  predicate  final  cause,  just  as  necessarily  as  of  the  works 
of  man.  If  there  is  one  instance  of  design,  there  are  millions. 
It  is  everywhere.  The  mind  of  the  maker  of  a  piano  is  in  every 
ke}^  and  hammer,  and  wire  in  it,  and  equally  is  the  mind  of  God 
in  all  his  works.  If  a  watch,  a  piano,  a  locomotive  exhibits  final 
cause,  much  more  does  the  human  body  as  a  whole  and  in  the 
structure  and  correlation  of  its  parts,  making  it  indeed  a  "  h^^mn 
to  God."  In  the  works  of  nature  as  in  those  of  man,  we  justly 
infer  the  final  cause,  or  design,  of  an}'  part,  from  its  capacity  or 
adaptation.  Thus  it  is  said  that  Harvey  was  led  to  the  brilliant 
discovery  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood  b}-  reflecting  on  the  ob- 
served adaptation  of  the  valves  of  the  heart  to  such  an  end.  In 
other  words,  the  adaptation  discovered  in  the  structure  of  the 
heart  led  the  philosopher  to  grasp  the  final  cause  that  lay  in  the 


78  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

Infinite  Mind  by  which  man  is  "  fearfully  and  wonderfully 
made." 

Viewed  in  relation  to  final  cause  as  everywhere  displayed,  the 
natural  world  brings  God  very  near  to  us.  It  proclaims  "  God 
first,  God  midst,  God  last,"  and  that  "  in  him  we  live  and  move 
and  have  our  being."  It  matters  not  how  God  made  the  world, 
whether  according  to  the  old  mechanical  conception,  or  accord- 
ing to  the  modern  idea  of  a  force  within  matter  by  which  the 
cosmos  is  evolved,  whether  six  days  or  millions  of  years  have 
been  occupied,  and  whether  in  the  one  mode  or  the  other,  it  is 
equally  true  that  in  all  its  parts  nature  is  working  for  the  realiza- 
tion of  ends  which  necessarily  involve  the  supposition  of  a  pre- 
ordaining and  directing  intelligence. 

We  have  thus  briefly  tried  to  make  it  clear  that  evolution,  or 
the  doctrine  of  the  development  of  the  universe  by  the  agency 
of  fixed  laws  working  through  vast  periods  of  duration,  by  no 
means  destroys,  but  rather  in  fact  increases  the  force  of  the 
argument  drawn  from  final  causes.  Just  here,  in  the  minds  of 
many  who  have  but  slightl}'-  examined  the  doctrine  of  evolution, 
arises  much  of  the  skepticism  of  the  daj^,  from  a  secret  belief 
that  science  has  really  proved  that  all  things  could  have  come  to 
be  as  they  are,  through  the  processes  explained  by  evolution,  and 
without  a  superintending  intelligence.  If  any  such  doubter 
should  read  these  lines,  his  faith  in  God  should  find  reassurance 
in  the  following  concessions  selected  from  the  many  such  made 
by  most  thorough  advocates  of  the  doctrine  of  evolution : 

Prof.  Huxley  says :  "  There  is  a  wider  teleology  which  is  not 
touched  by  the  doctrine  of  evolution,  but  is  actually  based  on 
the  fundamental  proposition  of  evolution." 

Prof  Asa  Gray,  as  strenuous  and  intelligent  an  advocate  of 
evolution  as  our  country  has  produced,  and  as  competent  as  any 
other  to  see  its  relation  to  the  doctrine  of  final  causes,  declares : 
"  What  is  lost  in  directness  may  perhaps  be  gained  in  breadth 
and  depth.  .  .  .  The  natural  history  of  ends  becomes  consistent 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  79 

and  reasonably  intelligible  under  the  light  of  evolution.  As  the 
forms  and  kinds  rise  gradually  out  of  that  which  was  well-nigh 
formless  into  consummate  form,  so  do  biological  ends  rise  and 
assert  themselves  in  increasing  distinctness  and  variety.  Vegeta- 
bles and  animals  have  paved  the  earth  with  intentions." 

Prof.  John  Fiske,  an  enthusiastic  advocate  of  Darwinianism^ 
in  his  work,  The  Destiny  of  Man,  says :  "  The  doctrine  of  evolu- 
tion does  not  allow  us  to  take  the  atheistic  view  of  man.  .  . 
He  who  recognizes  the  slow  and  subtle  process  of  evolution  as 
the  way  in  which  God  makes  things  come  to  pass,  must  take  a 
far  higher  view.  .  .  .  The  Darwinian  theory,  properly  under- 
stood, replaces  as  much  teleology  as  it  destroys.  From  the  first 
dawning  of  life  we  see  all  things  working  together  toward  one 
mighty  goal,  the  evolution  of  the  most  exalted  spiritualities 
which  characterize  humanitj-." 

The  doctrine  of  evolution,  if  true,  by  nq  means  eliminates 
final  cause.  If,  indeed,  the  conceived  plan  and  the  execution  in 
its  full  development  are  so  remote,  and  linked  by  a  series  of 
agencies  so  numerous,  and  working  through  periods  so  vast, 
even  the  greater  seems  the  demand  for  intelligence  as  the  author 
of  such  wonderful  processes  and  results.  Behind  the  screen  of 
natural  forces  patient  thought  finds  imperative  demand  for  God 
to  conceive,  ordain,  and  energize  the  vast  scheme.  "  We  are,  by 
the  discovery  of  the  general  laws  of  nature,"  says  Whewell, 
"led  into  a  scene  of  wider  design,  of  deeper  contrivances,  of 
more  comprehensive  adjustments.  Final  causes,  if  they  appear 
driven  further  from  us  by  such  extension  of  our  views,  embrace 
us  only  with  a  vaster  and  more  majestic  circuit.  Instead  of  a 
few  threads  connecting  some  detached  objects,  they  become  a 
stupendous  network  which  is  wound  round  and  round  the  uni- 
versal frame  of  things.  .  .  .  Our  discovery  of  laws  can  not  con- 
tradict our  persuasion  of  ends."  "  It  would  appear  from  modern 
discovery,"  says  Canon  Mozley,  "  that  creative  design  was  more 
distant  and  circuitous  than  the  design  of  the  human  artificer  in 


So  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

constructing  a  machine ;  was  in  less  immediate  contact  with  the 
result,  and  of  earlier  date  in  scheme ;  that  it  acted  on  a  large 
scale  by  bringing  things  together  from  diiferent  and  distant 
quarters,  and  b}-  the  use  of  contingent  materials,  whose  place  in 
the  plan  was  seen  only  b}-  the  light  of  the  end.  .  .  .  But  creative 
design  is  not  obscured  on  these  accounts,  but  onl)^  appears  the 
more  subtle,  powerful,  and  grand." 

It  is  believed  that  the  strongest  of  all  proofs  from  final  cause 
are  to  be  found  in  the  mind  as  endowed  with  intellect,  sensi- 
bility, will,  freedom,  and  a  moral  nature,  man  becoming  thus  a 
subject  of  moral  law,  and  finding  in  himself  thus  endowed  the 
data  of  a  necessary  belief  in  an  Intelligent  Creator  and  Moral 
Governor  in  whose  image  he  is  made.  But  upon  this  and  other 
proofs  commonl)^  relied  upon  in  the  theistic  discus.sion,  the 
limits  of  this  volume  will  not  permit  us  to  enter.  After  much 
study  of  the  whole  subject  as  one  of  absorbing  interest  and  as 
sustaining  a  most  important  practical  relation  to  morality,  to  the 
welfare  of  societ5^  to  science,  and  to  religion,  two  conclusions  force 
themselves  upon  us :  (i)  The  universe  is  the  product  of  an 
Infinite  Intelligence,  (2)  we  can  know  and  interpret  the  uni- 
verse only  because  we  are  made  in  the  image  of  that  Intelli- 
gence. The  universe  thus  becomes  intelligible  as  being  itself  a 
thought — a  thought  of  the  infiniteh^  wise  Thinker,  and  only  be- 
cause made  in  the  image  of  that  Thinker,  could  Kepler  exclaim 
as  he  looked  upon  the  visible  world,  "  O  God,  I  think  Thy 
thoughts  after  Thee  !  "  Science  is  but  the  interpretation  of  the 
thought  of  God  as  it  is  discerned  in  the  world,  all  branches  of 
science  combining  to  exhibit  nature  as  a  grand  unity  which 
proves  it  the  thought  of  one  mind.  In  the  forcible  words  with 
which  Noah  Porter  concludes  his  work  on  The  Human  Intellect  : 
"  We  analyze  the  several  processes  of  knowledge  into  their  un- 
derlying assumptions,  and  we  find  that  the  one  assumption 
which  underlies  them  all  is  a  self-existent  Intelligence,  who  not 
only  can  be  known  by  man,  but  must  be  known  by  man  in  order 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  8 1 

that  man  may  know  any  thing  besides.  We  are,  therefore,  not 
alone  justified,  we  are  compelled  to  conclude  our  analysis  of  the 
human  intellect  with  the  assertion  that  its  processes  involve  the 
assumption  that  there  is  an  uncreated  Thinker,  whose  thoughts 
can  be  interpreted  by  the  created  intellect  made  in  his  image." 

Having  given  so  much  space  to  an  attempt  at  stating  a  few  of 
the  grounds  of  theistic  belief  drawn  from  Natural  Theolog)-,  we 
may  most  suitably  close  with  some  paragraphs  from  one  of  the 
most  thoughtful  and  sj-stematic  works  *  of  recent  3'ears,  setting 
forth  alike  the  advantages  of  Natural  Theology,  and  the  need  of 
a  supernatural  revelation.  After  declaring  that  such  studies 
"vindicate  the  great  fundamental  truth  of  the  existence  of  God," 
the  author  affirms  his  conviction  that  "  beyond  all  we  can  learn 
concerning  God  and  his  relation  to  the  world  from  reason  and 
nature,  there  is  room  and  necessity  for  the  light  and  teaching  of 
a  supernatural  revelation,"  for — 

1.  "Natural  Theology  can  give  only  a  partial  and  incomplete 
view  of  God's  character. 

2.  It  leaves  us  in  the  dark  as  to  man's  specific  end  in  life,  and 
how  he  may  accomplish  it. 

3.  Its  intimations,  though  they  suggest  hope  for  the  future, 
fail  to  bring  immortality  to  full  light. 

4.  It  does  not  explain  the  existence  of  sin  and  the  depravity 
of  our  race. 

5.  It  furnishes  no  remedy  for  sin — no  way  of  forgiveness,  or 
salvation  from  sin. 

6.  The  history  of  mankind  shows  unquestionably  that  when 
left  to  the  mere  light  of  nature  and  reason  men  hold  low  and  in- 
adequate conceptions  of  God,  and  are  wanting  in  the  knowledge 
necessary  to  a  right,  pure,  and  happy  life. 

7.  A  revelation  from  God  gives  a  fresh  and  most  impressive 
proof  of  his  existence.  The  great  questions  of  truth  and  duty 
are  answered.     In  God's  light  we  see  light." 

*  Natural  Tlieology,  by  M.  Valentine,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


82  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

2.  The  Confession  asserts  that  there  is  "  but  one  living  and 
true  God."  The  unity  of  God  carries  with  it  the  idea  of  exclu- 
sion— that  there  is  no  class  of  beings  of  the  kind.  The  true 
God  existing  in  unity  is  the  only  true  God.  This  doctrine  is 
taught  in  many  passages  of  Scripture,  some  of  which  have  been 
cited.  The  monotheism  of  the  Hebrews  was  in  marked  contrast 
with  the  polytheistic  beliefs  of  the  nations  around  them,  and 
through  this  chosen  people  was  revealed  to  the  world  the  vastly 
important  idea  of  the  unity  of  God.  Natural  Theology  infers 
the  same  doctrine  from  what  it  regards  the  necessary  oneness  of 
an  absolute  First  Cause,  from  the  personality  of  that  First  Cause, 
and  from  the  unity  of  the  universe,  since  the  unity  of  thought 
pervading  the  universe  implies  that  it  is  the  product  of  one 
Mind.  Men  are  therefore  the  offspring  of  one  Father,  and  thus 
constitute  one  brotherhood. 

3.  That  God  is  a  self-existent  spirit.  In  this  are  two  proposi- 
tions, {a)  God  is  self-existent — that  is,  a  being  absolute  and  unde- 
rived.  Something  must  be  self-existent.  Whatever  is  not  self- 
existent  had  a  beginning,  before  which  it  did  not  exist.  If  noth- 
ing is  self-existent,  there  must  have  been  a  time  when  nothing 
existed,  and  if  so,  nothing  could  have  come  into  existence,  for, 
as  the  old  philosophers  correctly  reasoned,  out  of  nothing  noth 
ing  can  come.  Therefore  either  the  universe  is  eternal,  or  a 
self-existent  being  must  have  produced  it.  The  latter  seems  the 
only  rational  conclusion.  Said  the  late  Professor  Henry  of  the 
Smithsonian  Institute:  "The  simplest  conception  which  ex- 
plains and  connects  the  phenomena  is  that  of  the  existence  of 
one  spiritual  Being  infinite  in  wisdom,  power,  in  all  divine  per- 
fections, which  exists  always  and  everywhere."  Out  of  the 
attribute  of  self-existence  comes  that  of  eternity.  From  ever- 
lasting to  everlasting,  God  is  God,  without  beginning,  without 
end.  {b)  That  God  is  a  spirit.  This  refers  to  our  conception  of 
the  essence  of  God,  for  he  is  a  true  being,  an  entity.  It  implies 
that  he  is  not  matter — that  he  is  not  possessed  of  material  parts. 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  83 

He  is  not  the  universe,  nor  a  force,  nor  the  sum  total  of  the 
forces  in  the  universe,  but  a  person,  spiritual  in  essence.  Mate- 
rialism, or  the  doctrine  that  there  is  in  the  universe  no  entity 
except  that  which  we  cognize  by  the  senses,  and  call  matter,  is 
essentially  atheistic.  If  all  our  thoughts,  volitions,  and  feelings 
were  millions  of  years  ago  in  the  "  fire-mist,"  out  of  which  they, 
equally  with  our  bodies,  have  been  evolved,  then  design  is  itself 
but  a  product  of  matter,  and  the  universe  is  utterlj'-  destitute  of 
any  testimony  to  an  intelligent  author.  Says  Sir  William  Ham- 
ilton: "It  is  only  on  the  supposition  of  a  moral  liberty  in  man 
that  we  can  attempt  to  vindicate  a  moral  order,  and,  conse- 
quently, a  moral  governor  in  the  universe.  ...  In  the  hands  of 
the  materialist,  or  physical  necessitarian,  every  argument  for  the 
existence  of  a  Deity  is  either  annulled  or  reversed  in  a  demon- 
stration of  atheism."  Hamilton  further  argues,  and  rightly, 
that  free  will  is  the  ultimate  fact  on  which  we  are  warranted  in 
assuming  a  second  substance  that  we  call  spirit.  The  distinction 
between  matter  and  spirit  is  radical,  and  must  be  held,  if  we  are 
to  retain  any  rational  basis  for  ideas  of  morality,  religion,  or 
God. 

But  some  tell  us  they  know  matter,  but  they  can  not  know 
spirit ;  that  they  know  matter  exists,  but  that  the)'  can  not  know 
that  there  is  spirit.  Sufficient  reflection  will  teach  us,  however, 
that  we  may  have  as  valid  assurance  of  the  existence  of  spirit, 
as  of  matter,  yea  firmer  assurance.  Strictly  speaking  we  can 
know  neither  matter  nor  spirit.  We  know  their  attributes,  and 
we  by  logical  necessity  infer  the  entities  that  make  the  attributes 
possible.  I  am  conscious  of  reasoning,  remembering,  willing, 
and  other  mental  processes,  and  I  must  believe  there  is  a  some- 
thing capable  of  these  processes.  I  am  conscious  of  freedom. 
But  if  I  am  in  any  true  sense  free — that  is,  if  what  I  call  my 
mind,  my  very  self,  is  endowed  with  the  power  of  self-determi- 
nation, then  my  volitions  are  not  links  in  the  chain  of  phj'sical 
causation,  and  there  is  a  something  that  is  not  matter.     We  are 


84  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

not  conscious  of  matter,  and  not  conscious  of  mind.  We  are 
conscious  of  what  cc*npels  a  conscious  belief  in  the  existence 
of  both.  I  look  upon  an  apple  before  me,  and  say  it  is  red ; 
touch  it,  and  say  it  is  cold ;  taste  it,  and  say  it  is  sweet.  But 
"red"  and  "cold"  and  "sweet"  as  used  in  such  a  connection 
signify  only  mental  states  called  sensations.  Of  the  entity,  the 
matter  composing  the  apple,  that  something  which  occupies 
space,  and  is  endowed  with  properties  which  under  proper  rela- 
tions to  my  body  will  awaken  the  sensations  of  red,  cold,  sweet, 
/  know  absolutely  nothing.  I  infer  a  something,  a  substratum 
beneath  the  properties,  and  call  it  matter.  Similarly,  I  refer  my 
sensations,  emotions,  volitions,  and  all  the  other  contents  of  con- 
sciousness to  a  something,  a  substratum  wnthout  which  they 
could  not  exist.  The  attributes  of  the  two  substrata  are  so 
unlike,  so  utterly  incapable  of  being  converted  the  one  into  the 
other,  and  of  any  common  standard  of  comparison,  that  if  I  call 
the  substratum  to  one  set  matter,  I  must  call  the  substratum  to 
the  other  by  a  term  significant  of  a  nature  essentially  different — 
spirit.  Then,  since  spirit  possesses  the  attributes  of  intelligence, 
volition,  freedom,  purpose,  and  has  power  to  know  the  proper- 
ties of  matter,  to  modify  it  in  the  relations  of  its  parts,  and  to 
use  it  to  realize  intelligent  designs,  and  since  the  material  world 
is  evidently  the  product  of  inteUigence  and  design,  the  only  ad- 
missible conclusion  is  that  its  Author  is  a  spirit  infinitely  wise. 

There  are  those  who  regard  reasonings  like  the  foregoing  as 
unsatisfactory,  and  therefore  profitless ;  but  to  the  writer  they 
are  extremely  helpful,  and  therefore  satisfying,  deepening  con- 
viction in  the  inmost  recesses  of  the  soul  that  an  infinite  Spirit, 
Spirit  of  our  spirits,  is  everywhere  and  ever  present  "beholding 
the  evil  and  the  good,"  the  Moral  Governor  of  a  vast  economy 
of  intelligences  of  which  the  human  race  is  but  a  fractional 
part.  "  Whither  shall  I  go  from  thy  spirit?  or  whither  shall  I 
flee  from  thy  presence?  If  I  ascend  up  into  heaven,  thou  art 
there ;  if  I  make  my  bed  in  hell,  behold,  thou  art  there.     If  I 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  85 

take  the  wings  of  the  morning,  and  dwell  in  the  uttermost  parts 
of  the  sea,  even  there  shall  thy  hand  lead  me,  and  thy  right 
hand  shall  uphold  me." 

Remembering  the  golden  rule  that  the  comparison  of  scripture 
with  scripture  is  the  best  rule  of  interpretation,  since  many  pas- 
sages clearly  teach  that  God  is  a  spirit,  we  will  explain  all  the 
passages  which  represent  him  as  possessed  of  bodily  organs,  or 
material  parts,  as  simpl}^  emploj'ing  modes  of  expression  adapted 
to  man's  habit  of  receiving  and  imparting  ideas  through  such 
organs.  "And  when  the  Scriptures  speak,"  says  Dr.  A.  A. 
Hodge,  "  of  his  repenting,  of  his  being  grieved  or  jealous,  they 
use  metaphorical  language,  teaching  us  that  he  acts  toward  us 
as  a  man  would  when  agitated  by  such  passions.  Such  meta- 
phors are  characteristic  rather  of  the  Old  than  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament, and  occur  for  the  most  part  in  highly  rhetorical  passages 
of  the  poetical  and  prophetical  books." 

4.  It  is  taught  that  God  is  infinite,  eternal,  and  unchangeable 
in  his  being,  and  his  attributes  of  wisdom,  power,  holiness, 
justice,  goodness,  and  truth. 

"  When  Yv'e  speak  of  God  as  infinite,  we  mean  that  his  being 
can  not  be  brought  under  any  limitations  of  space  or  time ;  nor 
can  any  of  his  attributes  be  classed  as  finite."  To  our  minds, 
infinite  being,  infinite  power,  infinite  wisdom,  and  the  like,  are 
terms  which  can  not  be  grasped  in  their  positive  meaning,  for  the 
finite  can  not  comprehend  the  infinite,  and  yet  both  reason  and 
the  Scriptures  teach  us  that  God  is  not  subject  to  any  of  the 
limitations  which  render  man  finite.  We  m.ust  believe  many 
things  which  we  can  not  understand,  and  the  infinity  of  God  is 
manifestly  one  of  them. 

The  divine  Personality  as  infinite  implies,  {a)  Omniscience,  or 
unlimited  intelligence,  (p)  omnipotejice,  or  unlimited  power,  {c) 
omnipresence,  or  presence  not  limited  in  space — God  ever>^where, 
{d)  unlimited  wisdom,  or  that  application  of  knowledge  which 
always  selects  the  best  ends  and  the  best  means  for  accomplish- 
ing them. 


86  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

Holiness  is  defined  "  the  state  of  freedom  from  sin."  But  sin 
is  "the  transgression  of  the  law."  Therefore  the  infinite  hoh- 
ness  of  God,  is  the  eternal  and  perfect  consonance  of  his  will 
with  that  moral  law  which  necessarily  imposes,  on  man  and  all 
other  moral  creatures,  obligation  to  obedience.  The  love  of  moral 
rectitude,  the  hatred  of  sin,  conformity  of  will  to  the  law  of 
righteousness  make  up  the  content  of  the  term  holiness. 

5.  The  goodness  of  God  is  infinite,  eternal,  unchangeable.  It 
is  infinite  in  degree,  knowing  no  limitation  ;  eternal,  as  existing 
always;  unchangeable,  admitting  neither  increase  nor  diminu- 
tion. 

Love  and  benevolence  are  terms  used  in  the  same  sense  as 
good.  The  idea  involved  is  that  of  a  disposition  to  seek  the 
highest  good  of  sentient  creatures.  But  the  highest  good  of 
a  sentient  creature  is  in  that  condition  in  which  it  perfectly  real- 
izes the  end  for  which  it  exists.  Man's  chief  end  is  to  glorify 
God  and  enjoy  him  forever,  and  the  choice  of  this  end  for  a 
fellow-creature  is  goodness  in  the  one  so  choosing.  God  not 
only  endowed  man  with  faculties  rendering  him  capable  of  hap- 
piness, but,  as  infinitely  good,  he  wills  that  every  man,  and  every 
,  other  sentient  creature,  shall  attain  the  good  of  which  he  is 
capable.  "  Rational  love,  as  a  whole,"  saj^s  Mark  Hopkins,  "  will 
include  a  choice  by  us  for  all  other  beings  of  their  end  and  good, 
and  (a  choice)  for  ourselves  of  our  end  and  good."  So  to  choose 
for  another  is  to  love  him  according  to  the  divine  requirement. 
Because  God  is  infinitely  good  he  loves,  and  commands  all 
rational  intelligences  to  love.  He  who  loves  in  this  sense  is 
born  of  God.  Always  to  will  in  accordance  with  the  law  of  love 
is  to  be  holy,  as  well  as  good,  and  just,  as  well  as  good  and  holy. 

No  truth  is  more  explicitly  asserted  in  the  Scriptures,  or  more 
variously  and  frequently  repeated,  than  that  God  is  good.  The 
words  "God"  and  "good"  are,  in  fact,  synonyms,  imph^ng  that 
the  very  idea  of  goodness  is  that  of  likeness  to  God.  In  Anglo- 
Saxon,  whence  we  get  the  word,  God  means  the  one  who  is  good. 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  87 

The  divine  goodness  extends  even  to  brute  creatures,  for  he 
opens  his  hand  to  satisfy  the  desires  of  every  living  thing.  Not 
a  sparrow  falls  without  his  care.  Whatever  of  pain  may  seem 
inseparable  from  the  animal  economy,  it  is,  nevertheless,  mani- 
festly the  will  of  God  that  earth,  and  sea,  and  air  be  theaters  of 
happy  life.  Man's  rational  and  moral  faculties  lift  him  into 
higher  spheres  of  enjoyment  in  the  acquisition  of  knowledge 
and  the  practice  of  virtue,  thus  raising  him  to  companionship 
with  angels  and  God  himself.  Also,  and  for  the  sole  purpose,  so 
far  as  we  can  see,  of  adding  to  our  enjoyment,  the  divine  good- 
ness has  endowed  us  with  an  aesthetic  nature,  which  is  kindled 
into  conscious  delight  when  through  the  senses  the  outward 
world  is  mirrored  to  the  soul.  Our  social  nature,  also,  as  the 
source  of  friendship,  aflfection,  and  other  ties  that  bind  souls  in 
fellowships  true  and  sweet,  must  be  regarded  as  a  fountain 
opened  by  infinite  love.  Thus  within  us  and  without  us  proofs 
innumerable  give  confirmation  to  the  Bible  doctrine  of  the  infi- 
nite goodness  of  God — a  doctrine  which  itself  is  a  well-spring 
of  peace  to  the  soul  receiving  it  in  its  fullness,  causing  it  to  sing 
amid  all  life's  experiences : 

"  God  is  love !  his  mercy  brightens 
All  the  path  in  which  I  rove ; 
Bliss  he  wakes,  and  woe  he  lightens — 
God  is  wisdom,  God  is  love !  " 

Proofs  of  the  goodness  of  God,  from  whatever  source  drawn, 
are  strengthened  when  we  remember  that  man's  moral  and  spir- 
itual faculties  are  deadened  by  sin,  and  that  the  divine  goodness, 
as  thus  manifested  to  the  unworthy  and  the  undeserving,  is  gra- 
cious and  merciful.  As  a  moral  being,  man  is  a  system  in 
derangement,  an  organism  whose  head  is  sick  and  heart  is  faint ; 
and  in  the  light  of  this  truth  man's  own  experiences  and  the 
Scriptures  must  be  interpreted.  God  made  us  to  be  perfectly 
good,  therefore  perfectly  happy;  but  we  have  sinned,  and  so 


88  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

have  brought  upon  ourselves  spiritual  death,  with  all  its  train  of 
ills.  Still,  God  loves  us— is  gracious,  pitying  us,  and  seeking 
our  deliverance.  Read  in  the  one  hundred  and  third  Psalm 
the  fervent  and  eloquent  expressions  of  a  soul  flooded  with  a 
sense  of  the  goodness  of  God,  and  of  the  mercy  which  is  "  from 
everlasting  to  everlasting." 

The  doctrinal  system  of  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church 
places  in  the  foreground  the  doctrine  of  the  infinite  goodness  of 
God,  making  that  love  which  wills  the  good  of  all  the  source 
of  a  merciful  provision  for  the  salvation  of  all.  At  the  very 
start,  our  fathers  cast  out  the  vicious  element  of  a  decree  which 
unconditionally  predestinates  some  men  to  everlasting  life,  and 
ordains  others  to  everlasting  death.  If  such  an  unconditional 
decree  is  held,  the  infinite  goodness  of  God  must  be  given  up. 
The  two  are  logical  contradictions.  The  great  demand  for  a 
revision  of  the  Westminster  Standards  at  this  time  is  based  on 
an  alleged  necessity  for  a  doctrinal  statement  that  v/ill  bring  into 
prominence  the  goodness  of  God.  But  the  Calvinistic  sj'stem, 
placing  the  universal,  unconditional  decree  in  the  foreground, 
has  no  place  for  the  infinite  goodness.  That  system  retained, 
no  logic  is  competent  to  the  ta.sk  of  putting  goodness  in  the 
foreground,  or  of  finding  any  place  at  all  for  infinite  goodness. 
The  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Confession  and  the  Westminster 
Confession  teach  systems  that  are  logical  antagonisms,  as  will 
appear  more  fully  in  chapters  to  follow,  and  the  contrast  of  the 
two  systems  will  alwaj's  appear  when  they  are  viewed  in  their 
relation  to  the  love  of  God.  One  puts  love  at  the  head  of  the 
chapter,  the  other  puts  it  in  a  foot-note.  Those  who  rejoice  in 
the  truth,  and  especially  those  who  long  to  see  our  sin-stricken 
humanity  transformed  by  the  power  of  faith  in  the  infinite  love 
of  a  common  heavenly  Father,  will  sympathize  with  all  move- 
ments for  such  a  revision  of  Christian  creeds  as  will  show  God 
to  the  world  as  the  loving  Father  seeking  the  happiness  of  all 
his  creatures,  rather  than  as  an  arbitrary  and  dread  Sovereign. 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  89 

inspiring  the  hearts  of  his  creatures  with  awful  fear  or  hopeless 
despair,  in  view  of  his  absolute,  eternal  decree. 

Dr.  Howard  Crosby's  "The  Good  and  Evil  of  Calvinism"  pre- 
sents an  admirable  outline  of  Cumberland  Presbyterian  theology, 
as  the  system  of  scriptural  truth  remaining  after  he  has  elimi- 
nated from  Calvinism,  as  its  "evil,"  every  thing  characteristic 
of  it  as  a  system.  In  the  conclusion  Dr.  Crosby  states  in  the 
same  brief  paragraph  that  personally  he  is  content  with  the  Con- 
fession, and  also  that  it  should  be  so  modified  as  to  conform  to 
God's  word:  "  But  although  we  are  personally  content  with  our 
standards,  yet,  as  the  error  referred  to  has  undoubtedly  been  a 
stumbling-block  to  God's  saints  (we  care  nothing  for  what  the 
world  says),  we  feel  the  importance,  nay,  the  necessity,  of  taking 
this  stumbling-block  out  of  the  way.  The  Third  and  Tenth 
Chapters  should  be  so  modified  as  to  conform  to  God's  word, 
and  not  be  a  burden  on  the  conscience  of  devoted  and  godly 
men." 

In  an  interesting  notice  of  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes  at  fourscore,  ia 
The  New  England  Magazine  for  October,  1889,  the  writer  says: 
"  In  another  way  Holmes  has  quite  as  much  hope  as  Emerson 
had,  and  quite  as  strong  a  faith  in  the  good  the  universe  contains. 
His  belief  in  the  philosophy  of  joy  has  been  at  the  heart  of  his 
severe  criticisms  of  the  old  forms  of  theology.  To  him,  as  much 
as  to  Whittier,  God  is  the  eternal  goodness ;  and  he  has  not  been 
able  to  think  of  God  as  wishing  for  any  thing  else  than  the  hap- 
piness of  his  creatures."  It  is  for  God  in  this  aspect  of  God  as 
the  eternal  goodness,  as  the  loving  Father  desiring  the  good  of 
his  creatures,  and  of  all  his  creatures,  that  the  heart  of  humanity 
yearns ;  and  only  a  God  of  love  can  be  preached  to  men  with 
hope  of  winning  them  to  God  and  heaven.  To  us  it  seems  sin- 
gular that  Dr.  Crosby  should  express  indifference  "  for  what  the 
world  says,"  for  it  is  most  certainly  true  that  the  verj^  error  he 
declares  "has  undoubtedly  been  a  stumbling-block  to  God's 
saints,"  has  no  less  certainly  been  a  stumbling-block  in  the  way 


go  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

of  sinners,  over  which  multitudes  have  stumbled  either  into 
downright  unbelief  or  into  secret  bitterness  of  feeling  toward  the 
supposed  arbitrary  Sovereign  in  the  Father  whose  loving  heart 
yearns  for  the  salvation  of  all.  It  is  largely  in  the  popular  sen- 
timent of  the  times,  if  we  mistake  not,  that  is  found  the  con- 
fessed demand  for  a  revision  of  the  Calvinistic  standards.  A 
foreign  journal  before  me  contains  a  brief  editorial  paragraph 
from  a  North-western  secular  journal,  seemingly  penned  in  not  a 
very  kind  spirit,  but  characteristic  of  the  popular  demand  named, 
which  paragraph,  for  that  very  reason,  has  twice  crossed  the  sea: 
"The  Presbyterians  have  concluded  to  amend  their  Confession 
of  Faith.  Sentences  which  have  stood  the  buffetings  of  two 
hundred  years  are  to  be  changed,  and  little  babies  will  be  damned 
no  longer.  The  funniest  part  of  yesterday's  proceedings  in  the 
New  York  Presbytery  was  the  motion  that  they  leave  the  wrath 
of  God  and  the  damnation  of  the  heathen  and  of  infants  in  the 
text,  and  put  the  love  of  God  in  a  foot-note.  This  tearing  away 
of  the  old  land-marks  of  the  road  to  heaven  is  a  severe  blow  to 
the  fathers  in  Israel,  but  nevertheless  it  is  a  mark  of  progress. 
The  God  of  the  liberal  Presbyterian  is  infinitely  more  divine 
than  the  God  of  those  who  desire  an  avenger  rather  than  a  lov- 
ing Father.  The  Presbyterian  Church  will  be  all  the  better  for 
the  elimination  from  its  creed  of  the  crudities  of  former  genera- 
tions." 

That  which  thoughtful  men,  both  out  of  the  Church  and  in  the 
Church,  are  demanding  of  Christianity  is  a  creed  in  harmony 
with  man's  own  consciousness,  the  dictates  of  reason,  and  the 
obvious  teachings  of  the  Scriptures  as  a  whole.  Cumberland 
Presbyterians,  making  the  infinite  goodness  of  God  the  central 
doctrine  of  their  system,  and  to  it  subordinating  all  others  in 
their  true  logical  relations,  believe  their  creed  consonant  with 
the  Bible  and  the  requirements  of  enlightened  reason. 

Finally,  the  Confession  teaches  that  God  exists  in  Trinity. 
This   is  a  doctrine  we  learn  only  from  the  Scriptures,  neither 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH. 


91 


reason  nor  the  world  about  us  giving  any  intimation  of  it.  It  is 
fundamental  to  the  system  of  redemption,  which  represents  God 
as  loving  the  world,  and  giving  his  Son  to  die  for  it ;  Christ  as 
becoming  incarnate,  and  assuming  the  functions  of  prophet, 
priest,  and  king;  the  Holy  Ghost  as  sent  to  act  in  the  office  of 
Comforter  of  God's  children,  and  to  enlighten  and  reprove  the 
world.  Believers,  according  to  the  command  of  Christ,  are  bap- 
tized into  "the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,"  the  "three  that  bear  record  in  heaven."  The  con- 
current Christian  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  as  drawn  from  the 
Scriptures,  is  well  expressed  in  the  following  propositions : — 

1.  "That  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost  are  each  equally  that 
one  God,  and  that  the  indivisible  divine  essence  and  all  divine 
perfections  and  prerogatives  belong  to  each  in  the  same  sense 
and  degree. 

2.  "That  these  titles.  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  are  not 
different  names  of  the  same  person  in  different  relations,  but  of 
■different  persons. 

3.  "  That  these  three  divine  persons  are  distinguished  from 
one  another  by  certain  personal  properties,  and  are  revealed  in  a 
certain  order  of  subsistence  and  operation."* 

These  points  may  fitly  conclude  this  chapter : — 

1.  Man  is  essentially  a  religious  being.  A  God  is  the  demand 
of  his  nature.  "  The  universality  of  religion  admits  of  but  one 
explanation — the  universal  is  the  necessary.  What  man  every- 
where has  done,  he  could  not  but  do.  His  nature  is  creative 
of  religion.  And,  so,  religion  is  the  fruit  of  faculties  given  in 
our  nature." 

2.  The  main  source  of  the  differences  distinguishing  the  many 
religions  of  the  world  is  in  the  conception  and  representation  of 
the  deity  worshiped.  Almost  innumerable  objects,  from  sticks 
and  stones  deified  bj'  fetichism,  to  the  High  and  Holy  One  of  the 
Scriptures,  have  received  religious  homage. 

*  Hodge's  Commentary. 


g2  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

3.  Man  is  influenced  by  nothing  else  so  much  as  by  religion. 
He  who  worships  Buddha  is  like  Buddha.  "A  nation's  genius 
rises  as  its  consciousness  of  God  deepens.  The  point  where  the 
genius  and  culture  of  Greece  culminated  was  the  very  point 
where  it  had  come  to  realize  most  vividly  the  being  and  govern- 
ment of  God."  It  is  impossible  for  those  living  in  a  Christian 
land  fully  to  estimate  their  indebtedness  to  Christianity'.  Even 
those  who  make  no  profession  of  Christianity,  who  may  dis- 
credit its  divine  origin  and  authority,  are  unconsciously  and 
wonderfully  molded  by  its  influence.  A  French  infidel  well 
said:  "  The  best  that  is  in  me  is  from  Christ." 

4.  The  Hebrew  and  Christian  conception  of  God  as  One,  a 
pure  Spirit,  self-existent,  infinitely  good,  wise,  and  just,  is  incom- 
parably superior  to  any  other  theistic  conception  known  to  the 
world.  The  communication  of  the  knowledge  of  this  true  and 
only  living  God  to  the  world,  through  a  selected  people,  who 
were  surrounded  by  nations  idolatrous,  polj'theistic,  and  given 
to  the  horrible  rite  of  human  sacrifices,  seems  to  us  a  stupen- 
dous miracle.  "  This,  then,  was  the  gift  of  the  Semitic  race  in  its 
noblest  branch  to  the  world — faith  in  the  righteous,  living  God. 
A  gift  so  splendid  might  well  hold  in  it  the  regeneration  of  the 
world,  giving  to  it  not  only  the  idea  of  the  Divine  Unity,  but 
religion  changed  into  a  mighty  and  commanding  reality,  which 
penetrates  and  inspires  the  whole  man,  dignifies  him  with  the 
consciousness  of  a  divine  descent,  gladdens  him  with  the  hope 
of  a  happy,  because  a  holy,  immortality,  quickens  him  with  the 
sense  of  omnipotence  moving  everywhere  to  the  help  of  man  in 
the  soft  guise  of  infinite  gentleness.  He  who  knows  what  these 
things  mean  will  best  understand  that  ancient  saying, '  Salvation 
is  of  the  Jews.'"* 

*  Studies  in  the  Philosophy  of  Religion  and  History,  by  A.  M.  Fairbairn. 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH. 


93 


CHAPTER  III. 

OF  THE  DECREES  OF  GOD — A  GENERAL  VIEW  OF  THE  SUBJECT. 

ATOTHING  that  can  be  said  negativelj^  of  the  doctrinal  system 
^  of  the  Cumberland  Presbj'terian  Church  is  more  true  or  more 
characteristic  of  it  than  that  it  is  z/«-Calvinistic.  I  am  well  aware 
that  it  is  not  uncommon  with  our  people,  some  ministers  in- 
cluded, to  speak  of  our  theology  as  "a  mild  form  of  Calvinism," 
"the  Calvinistic  system  slightly  modified,"  "Calvinism  with  the 
sterner  features  omitted,"  etc.  With  my  views  of  the  two  doc- 
trinal systems,  I  can  only  say  that  those  who  speak  in  such 
phraseology  as  the  foregoing  either  have  not  carefuU}'  compared 
the  two  systems,  or  are  very  careless  in  the  use  of  language 
which  the  facts  in  the  case  will  not  at  all  justify.  The  probable 
explanation  of  the  mistake  alluded  to  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact 
that  those  who  organized  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church 
had  been  Presbyterian  ministers,  the  fact  that  our  Confession  is 
a  (very  radical)  "modification  of  the  Westminster  Confession," 
and  that  the  ordinary  ministrations  of  the  Presbyterian  pulpit 
are,  like  Dr.  Crosby's  doctrinal  exposition  in  The  Good  and  the 
Evil  of  Calvinism,  orthodox  Cumberland  Presb^-terianism.  The 
practical  result  of  all  this  is  that  nearly  all  who  leave  us,  minis- 
ters and  laity,  for  reasons  worth}-  or  unworth}',  go,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  as  it  would  seem,  into  the  Presbyterian  Church.  Now, 
of  this  tendenc}^  among  our  people  it  is  not  at  all  the  writer's 
purpose  to  speak  complainingly,  but  reference  is  made  to  it  in 
justification  of  his  purpose  to  present,  in  the  discussion  of  the 
subject  of  "Decrees,"  what  he  most  thoroughly  believes  a  very 


Q4  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

great  and  radical  and  very  important  difference  between  the  two 
systems  as  contained  in  the  two  Confessions. 

When  the  founders  of  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church 
made  their  first  protest  against  the  Westminster  doctrines,  that 
protest  was  against  the  teaching  of  Chapter  III.,  \>y  which  first 
blow  they  completely  struck  the  key-stone  from  the  Calvinistic 
arch.  The  first  proposition  of  their  first  published  doctrinal 
statement  contradicts  a  fundamental  statement  of  this  Chapter 
III.  A  little  later,  when  they  came  to  construct  a  Confession, 
they  saw  that  in  every  vital  point  Calvinistic  teaching  was  out 
of  harmony  with  the  fundamental  principles  they  had  already 
adopted.  The  Confession  of  Faith  of  the  Cumberland  Presby- 
terian Church,  as  adopted  in  1829,  and  still  more  fully  as  revised 
in  1873,  is  in  irreconcilable  antagonism  to  the  obvious  and  histor- 
ical sense  of  the  Westminster  Confession ;  and  this  I  desire  so 
to  exhibit  that  the  difference  may  be  fairly  understood,  the  tend- 
ency of  which  will  be  finally  to  bring  about,  as  I  honestly  be- 
lieve, a  better  understanding  between  the  two  churches.  On  the 
one  hand,  our  own  people  should  better  understand  how  dis- 
tinctive is  our  doctrinal  system ;  and  on  the  other,  our  brethren 
of  the  Mother  Church  should  candidly  hear  objections  to  the 
Westminster  sj^stem,  and  not  hastily  charge  us  with  misrepre- 
senting it  or  wishing  to  exaggerate  its  less  acceptable  features. 

With  an  exception  or  two,  the  Calvinistic  theology  is  a  system 
of  most  rigid  logical  coherence  of  parts.  These  parts  are 
grouped  necessarily  about  the  doctrine  of  the  eternal  decree  of 
the  third  chapter,  and  all  of  them  must  stand  or  fall  as  it  stands 
or  falls.  As  another  expresses  it:  "The  third  chapter.  Of  God's 
Eteryial  Decree,  may  be  said  to  be  the  key-note  from  which  its 
most  characteristic  doctrines  follow  in  immediate  sequence  and 
harmony."  Therefore,  I  entreat  the  reader  to  consider  once 
more,  calmly  and  deliberately,  this  chapter,  in  which  lies  the 
spinal  column  without  which  the  Calvinistic  system  can  not 
stand.     "  Revision  "  is  the  order  of  the  day,  and  it  is  hoped  that 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  95 

a  fair  statement  of  revision,  as  embodied  in  the  Cumberland 
Presbyterian  Confession,  may  avail  something  to  the  advance- 
ment of  the  truth. 

In  fairness  it  is  to  be  said  that  many  Presbyterian  ministers 
and  laymen  disclaim  the  doctrines  that  Arminians  attribute  to 
the  Calvinistic  eternal  decree,  as  logically  interpreted.  They 
advocate  revision,  not,  as  a  rule,  acknowledging  the  errors  of  the 
Confession,  but  claiming  that  a  re-statement  is  necessary  "  in 
order  to  tell  the  public  Vv'hat  has  been  meant  all  the  while  by  the 
Confession."  B}^  parity  of  reasoning  another  re-statement  would 
be  necessary  to  tell  what  the  first  re-statement  meant,  and  so  on. 
But  the  Westminster  Confession  was  framed  with  much  deliber- 
ation, every  sentence,  phrase,  and  word  being  used  in  a  sense 
well  understood,  which  sense  is  as  readily  ascertained  to-day  as 
when  the  Assembl}"  concluded  its  work.  Dr.  Briggs,  in  his  com- 
plaint that  the  Presbyterian  Church  is  drifting,  and  his  demand 
for  a  return  to  the  true  historic  sense  of  the  Confession,  says : 
"There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  Westminster  divines  were  Cal- 
vinists,  that  they  held,  in  the  main,  to  the  Canons  of  Dort,  and 
that  they  excluded  Arminians  and  semi-Arminians  from  ortho- 
doxy. The  Westminster  definitions  were  made  with  this  end  in 
view.  They  are  sharp,  hard,  polemical,  and  exclusive ;  and,  at 
the  same  time,  apologetic,  defensive,  and  guarding  themselves 
from  objections  at  every  point.  /  do  not  kjww  where  any  such 
careful  and  admirable  definitions  can  be  fozind.  At  the  same 
time,  it  is  my  opinion  that,  in  this  respect,  the  Westminster 
divines  went  too  far  in  their  polemics.  They  sharpened  their 
definitions  into  swords  and  spears  that  are  as  dangerous  in  the 
hands  of  unskillful  Calvinists  as  they  are  to  their  Arminian 
foes.  It  is  not  surprising  that  these  definitions  have  ever  been 
regarded  as  hard  and  offensive,  and  that  they  have  kept  multi- 
tudes from  uniting  with  the  Presbyterian  Church."  (Italics 
ours.) 

The  two  schools  of  theologians  in  the  Presbyterian  Church — 


96  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

the  Liberalists  and  the  orthodox  Calvinists,  or  those  who  favor 
and  those  who  oppose  revision — differ  widely  in  their  interpre- 
tation of  some  of  the  statements  of  the  chapter  on  Decrees,  as 
will  be  indicated  bj-  the  following  contrasted  statements : — 

Dr.  Howard  Crosby  says:  "Surely  from  these  Scriptures  we 
can  safely  say  that  any  scheme  of  theology  that  makes  God  par- 
tial, resolving  to  furnish  his  grace  only  to  some  of  those  whom 
he  invites,  and  willfully  excluding  others  from  all  participation 
in  it,  is  an  unscriptural  scheme,  whatever  may  be  its  philosoph- 
ical merits." — Respoyisibility  before  the  Gospel. 

Dr.  A.  A.  Hodge  says :  "  That  as  God  has  sovereignly  predes- 
tinated certain  persons,  called  the  elect,  through  grace  to  salva- 
tion, so  he  has  sovereignly  decreed  to  withhold  his  grace  from 
the  rest ;  and  that  this  withholding  rests  upon  the  unsearchable 
counsel  of  his  own  will,  and  is  for  the  glory  of  his  sovereign 
power." — Commeyitary  on  the  Confession. 

It  will  appear,  on  further  investigation  of  the  subject,  that  Dr. 
Hodge  and  his  school  are  the  consistent  Calvinists,  frankly 
accepting  the  conclusions  of  their  own  premises,  and  explaining 
the  Confession  in  its  obvious,  logical,  historical  sense.  Dr. 
Crosby  and  his  school  explain  awa}'  the  Confession,  in  order  to 
be  evangelical ;  the  former  explain  away  the  Scriptures,  as  it 
seems  to  us,  to  be  consistent  Calvinists. 

The  divergence  of  the  Calvinistic  and  the  Cumberland  Pres- 
byterian doctrinal  systems,  which  takes  rise  in  the  third  chapters 
of  the  two  Confessions,  leads  to  logical  results  widely  different 
in  the  interpretation  of  other  important  doctrines,  and  our 
attempt  to  bring  these  differences  clearly  and  fully  before  our 
readers  will  begin  with  a  brief  statement  of  the 

Meaning  of  the  Decrees  of  God. 

In  the  last  chapter  reference  was  made  to  the  harmony  of  the 
universe,  the  numerous  adaptations  of  its  parts,  and  the  marks 
of  design  everywhere  manifest,  in  proof  that  it  must  be  the 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  97 

product  of  mind,  of  the  Infinite  Intelligence  we  call  God.  Fur- 
ther, we  looked  upon  thie  world  as  full  of  proofs  of  the  goodness 
of  God,  that  the  vast  system  of  creation  exists  for  the  higher 
ends  embraced  in  the  happiness  of  creatures  rational  and  sen- 
tient. As  the  earth  is  so  insignificant  a  member  of  the  universe 
that  has  limitless  expansion  on  all  sides  of  us,  we  must  believe 
that  we  are  but  a  handful  of  the  great  rational  creation  and 
moral  economy  of  which  God  is  the  certain  and  rightful  sover- 
eign. Then,  we  must  believe  that,  if  this  goodly  frame  is  the 
product  of  a  creative  hand,  it  sprang  from  a  purpose  in  the  mind 
of  God,  which  purpose  we  call  his  decree  to  create  the  world  as 
it  is,  and  to  people  it  with  such  beings  as  are  in  it.  If  such  a 
purpose  was  in  the  divine  mind,  it  was  always  there,  and  so  we 
believe  God's  decrees  are  eternal.  Moreover,  we  must  believe  ,, 
that  he  had  a  purpose,  or  will,  as  to  how  the  creatures  made  in 
his  own  image  should  act ;  not  necessarily  that  he  decreed  just 
what  specific  actions  each  one  should  perform,  but  the  great 
principle  or  law  of  their  behavior  as  beings  intelligent  and  free. 
Thus  the  universe  was  a  conception  or  ideal  in  the  divine  mJnd, 
the  purpose  to  realize  which  is  God's  creative  decree.  From  this 
-definition  of  decree  there  will  be  no  reasonable  dissent. 

"  The  will  of  God  that  any  thing  exterior  to  himself  shall  take 
place,  is  called  his  determination,  or  decree." — K^iapfs  Theology. 

"  By  God's  purposes  (decrees)  is  meant  his  eternal  and  immut- 
able pleasure,  will,  or  choice  concerning  all  creatures  and  events 
or  whatever  comes  to  pass  in  time  or  eternity." 

The  last  definition  has  in  it  a  very  vicious  element,  in  that  it 
confounds  the  purpose,  or  decree,  of  God  with  his  pleasure,  will, 
or  choice.  We  think  of  a  divine  decree  as  certainly  efficacious, 
or  never  failing  of  fulfillment ;  but  numerous  passages  of  Script- 
ure declare  plainl}'  and  most  positively  that  many  things  happen 
contrary  to  the  pleasure  of  God.  "  Say  unto  them,  As  I  live, 
saith  the  Lord  God,  I  have  no  pleasure  in  the  death  of  the 
-wicked ;  but  that  the  wicked  turn  from  his  way  and  live ;  turn 
7 


gS  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

ye,  turn  ye,  from  your  evil  ways ;  for  why  will  ye  die,  O  house 
of  Israel? "  (Ezek.  xxxiii.  ii.)  Is  it  not  amazing  that,  with  the 
asseveration  of  God  himself  that  he  has  no  pleasure  in  the  death 
of  man,  and  the  added  pathetic  importunity  and  remonstrance 
contained  in  this  passage,  that  men,  for  the  sake  of  a  theory, 
will  resort  to  the  expedient  of  a  secret  decree  by  which  the  Lord 
brings  about,  as  they  affirm,  the  very  thing  he  so  solemnly 
declares  contrary  to  his  pleasure !  Will  is  used  sometimes  in  the 
sense  of  pleasure  or  choice,  sometimes  in  the  sense  of  decree. 
It  is  the  writer's  will  (pleasure)  that  Congress  appoint  a  commis- 
sion to  investigate  and  report  the  extent  of  the  evil  suiBfered  an- 
nually by  the  nation  in  health,  morals,  and  business  because  of 
the  liquor  traffic ;  but  he  does  not  will  (decree)  that  Congress  do 
so,  as  such  a  decree  would  be  futile ;  but  were  he  an  emperor,  he 
would  so  decree,  and  say  to  Congress,  "Do  thus." 

Calvinistic  definitions  of  "decree"  are,  as  a  rule,  illogical  and 
unfair,  since  they  add  a  limitation,  that  is  no  part  of  a  definition, 
and  such  as  begs  the  question  at  issue  between  the  Calvinist  and 
the  Arminian.  The  oft-repeated  one,  from  Buck's  Theological 
Dictionary,  is  an  illustration :  "  The  settled  purpose  of  God  fore- 
ordaining whatsoever  comes  to  pass."  Whether  God  has  de- 
creed "  whatsoever  comes  to  pass,"  or  whether  men  do  many 
things  contrary  to  the  will  of  God,  and  which  he,  therefore, 
could  not  have  decreed,  is  the  very  question  at  issue.  A  decree 
of  God  is,  then,  simply  his  purpose  to  do  whatever  he  does,  for 
we  can  not  suppose  the  divine  action  separable  from  determina- 
tion to  act.  If  God  called  Moses  to  lead  Israel  out  of  Egypt,  he 
determined  (decreed)  to  call  him.  Whether  the  divine  decree 
respects  whatsoever  comes  to  pass,  is  quite  another  and  very  dif- 
ferent question,  before  the  discussion  of  which  we  may  notice  the 

Mode  of  the  Efficacy  of  the  Decrees  of  God. 
The  event  decreed  is  held  to  be  dependent  on  the  decree,  and 
that  it  is  made  absolutely  certain.     "  The  very  reason  why  any 
thing  comes  to  pass  in  time  is  because  God  decreed  it "  (Fisher's 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  ng 

Explanation  of  the  Shorter  Catechism).  In  accordance  with  the 
foregoing,  Dr.  A.  A.  Hodge  says,  "  The  one  eternal,  self-consist- 
ent, all-comprehensive  purpose  of  God  at  the  same  time  deter- 
mines the  nature  of  the  agent,  his  proper  mode  of  action  and 
each  action  that  shall  eventuate."  Again,  he  says  that  "  they 
(decrees)  render  every  event  embraced  in  them  absolutely'  cer- 
tain." A  divine  decree  relating  to  man's  final  destiny  is  usually 
called  predestination,  and,  as  it  relates  to  the  salvation  or  the 
perdition  of  the  person,  it  is  called  election  or  reprobation. 
Thus,  Calvin  says:  "  Predestination  Vv'e  call  the  eternal  decree  of 
God,  by  which  he  has  determined  with  himself,  what  he  willed 
to  be  done  with  every  man.  For  all  men  are  not  created  in  an 
equal  condition  {pari  conditione) ;  but  eternal  life  is  pre-ordained 
to  some,  eternal  damnation  to  others.  Therefore,  as  every  one 
was  formed  for  the  one  end  or  the  other  end,  so  w^e  say  that  he 
was  predestinated  to  life  or  to  death." 

The  point  we  desire  specially  noted  is  that  the  foregoing  state- 
ments make  the  decree  of  God  stand  in  the  relation  of  an  effi- 
cient cause  to  the  thing  decreed.  "  The  reason  whj^  any  thing 
comes  to  pass,"  as  above  quoted,  "  is  because  God  has  decreed 
it."  "  In  the  strict  philosophical  sense,"  says  Dr.  Reid,  "  I  take 
a  cause  to  be  that  which  has  the  relation  to  the  effect  which  I 
have  to  my  voluntary  and  deliberate  actions;  for  I  take  this 
notion  of  cause  to  be  derived  from  the  power  I  feel  in  myself  to 
produce  certain  effects.  In  this  sense  we  say  the  Deity  is  the 
cause  of  the  universe."  It  is  the  opinion  of  Isaac  Taylor  also, 
one  of  the  ablest  of  metaphysical  writers,  that  in  itself  the  mind 
comes  to  recognize  "  the  first  and  only  cause  of  which  it  has  any 
knowledge,"  and  that  later,  "  in  following  the  leadings  of  math- 
ematical abstraction,  and  again  in  mastering  the  philosophy  of 
the  material  universe,  it  establishes  the  fact  of  its  homogeneous- 
ness  with  the  Supreme  Creative  Reason."  The  human  mind  is  a 
cause.  The  Infinite  Mind  is  a  cause.  Man  causes  a  house,  a 
telescope  to  be ;  God  causes  a  universe  to  be. 


lOO         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

If,  now,  we  admit,  for  the  sake  of  the  inquiry  in  hand,  that 
God  has  decreed  whatsoever  comes  to  pass,  including,  of  course, 
the  desires,  volitions,  and  actions  of  men,  how  does  the  decree 
cause  the  event,  how  does  it  bring  it  to  pass  ?  For,  since  it  is 
utterly  incredible  that  every  thing  which  comes  to  pass  is  an 
accidental  correspondence  with  an  eternal  decree  to  bring  about 
just  such  an  event,  we  must  believe,  as  I  have  attempted  to 
show,  that  the  procuring  cause  of  the  event  lay  in  the  decree,  or, 
more  strictly,  in  the  mind  putting  forth  the  decree.  If,  now,  I 
will  to  dismiss  the  train  of  thought  engaging  my  mind,  this  voli- 
tional "down  brakes"  can  bring  about  the  event  decreed.  But 
if  I  will  that  the  book  nearest  me  lie  at  the  farther  end  of  my 
table,  the  decree  is  in  no  wise  efficient — there  is  no  conceivable 
nexus  between  the  volition  and  the  event  willed.  If,  however,  I 
will  to  rise  and  transfer  the  book  to  the  designated  place,  the 
volition  has  an  immediate  efficiency  to  produce  action  in  my 
body,  and  mechanical  force  transfers  the  book.  Still,  it  is  true 
that  my  volition  is  the  cause  of  the  change  that  took  place,  but 
it  effected  the  change  through  what  we  call  means.  Similarly, 
if  I  decree  that  a  mechanic  shall  build  me  a  house,  my  decree  is 
utterly  inefficient  to  move  his  mind,  but  assurance  of  reasonable 
compensation  will  give  efficiency  to  my  decree,  and  the  means  in 
this  instance  we  call  a  motive. 

So,  whether  the  divine  decree  effects  immediately  the  event 
decreed,  or  effects  it  through  means,  or  "  proximate  causes,"  it  is 
equally  true  that  the  decree  is  the  cause  of  the  event.  It  is  the 
accepted  Calvinistic  doctrine  that  God  brings  his  decrees  to  pass 
through  the  agencies  that  are  said  to  bring  about  the  events 
naturally.  Since  the  decree  embraces,  however,  all  the  means 
necessary  to  effect  the  event,  the  use  of  the  means  makes  God 
none  the  less  the  author  of  the  event. 

Says  Dr.  A.  A.  Hodge :  "  The  decree  of  God  is  merely  a  pur- 
pose which  he  executes  in  his  works  of  creation  and  providence. 
When  it  is  said  that  all  the  decrees  of  God  are  certainly  effica- 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  lOI 

cious,  it  is  not  meant  that  they  are  the  proximate  causes  of 
events,  but  that  they  render,  under  the  subsequent  economy  of 
creation  and  providence,  every  event  embraced  in  them  abso- 
lutely certain."  Again,  "  it  (the  decree)  provides  that  free  agents 
shall  be  free  agents,  and  free  actions  free  actions,  and  that  a 
given  free  agent  shall  exist,  and  that  he  shall  perform  a  certain 
free  action  under  certain  conditions."  All  that  is  very  clear. 
The  decree  of  God  makes  the  "s/iair'  in  the  performance  of  a 
free  action  under  certain  conditions.  That  is  to  say,  God 
ordains  the  means  to  the  end,  namely,  "certain  conditions," 
which  make  the  free  agent's  choice  to  perform  the  action  an 
absolute  certainty,  "  shutting  up  all  other  ways  of  acting." 
That  is  Calvinistic  freedom— power  to  choose  to  do  the  thing 
decreed,  without  any  power  of  contrary  choice.  If  one  were 
being  swept  over  Niagara,  cJioosing  to  make  the  awful  plunge 
would  be  no  relief  to  the  one  hopelessly  borne  to  destruction. 
Choice  without  the  power  of  contrary  choice — the  only  theory 
of  freedom  logically  consistent  with  the  eternal  causative  decree 
— is  "as  perfect  a  fatality  of  choice,"  said  layman  Beecher,  "as 
ever  pagan,  or  atheist,  or  antinomian  conceived." 

The  Calvinistic  Decrek  Makes  God  the  Author  of  Sin. 

However  it  may  appear  to  other  minds,  to  the  writer  it  is  most 
clear  that  no  metaphysics,  no  theory  of  morals,  can  free  the  Cal- 
vinistic doctrine  of  decrees  from  the  charge  of  making  God  the 
author  of  sin — decreeing  not  only  every  wicked  act,  but  decree- 
ing such  a  combination  of  "  proximate  causes"  as  will  certainly 
cause  the  doomed  agent  to  choose  to  do  the  act.  But  a  few  days 
ago,  in  this  quiet  town,  a  murderer  suffered  the  penalty  of  death. 
Had  it  been  shown  to  the  court  that  a  neighbor  of  the  murderer 
had  willed  the  death  of  the  murdered  man,  and  that  he  had  pur- 
posely brought  about  a  combination  of  circumstances  that  made 
it  absolutely  certain  that  the  murderer  would  choose  to  commit 
the  crime,  and  that  any  other  choice  would  be  impossible,  the 


I02     ■  DOCTRINES  AND  GE"NIUS  OF  THE 

court  should  have  released  the  prisoner  on  trial,  and  have 
convicted  and  hanged  the  person  really  guilty.  It  was  in  view 
of  this  grave  difficulty  which  hopelessly  besets  the  Calvinistic 
doctrine  of  a  divine  decree,  which  holds  all  human  actions  in  the 
grasp  of  an  absolute  necessity,  that  Adam  Clarke  said  :  "  He  who 
leads  another  into  an  offense  that  he  may  have  a  fairer  pretense 
to  punish  him  for  it,  or  bring  him  into  such  circumstances  that 
he  can  not  avoid  committing  a  capital  crime,  and  then  hangs  him 
for  it,  is  surely  the  most  execrable  of  mortals.  What,  then, 
should  we  make  of  the  God  of  justice  and  mercy,  should  we 
attribute  to  him  a  decree,  the  date  of  which  is  lost  in  eternity, 
hy  which  he  has  determined  to  cut  off  from  the  possibility  of 
salvation  millions  of  millions  of  unborn  souls,  and  leave  them 
tinder  a  necessity  for  sinning,  by  actually  hardening  their  hearts 
against  the  influences  of  his  own  grace  and  Spirit,  that  he  may, 
on  the  pretense  of  justice,  assign  them  to  endless  perdition? " 

That  we  have  herein  fairly  represented  the  necessary  relation 
of  the  will  of  God  to  the  conduct  and  doom  of  the  wicked, 
according  to  the  doctrine  that  God  has  decreed  whatsoever  comes 
to  pass,  the  following  passage  from  the  writings  of  the  man 
whose  name  the  system  bears,  may  be  cited  in  proof.  Calvin 
says :  "As  by  the  efficacy  of  his  calling  toward  the  elect,  God 
perfects  the  salvation  to  which  he  had  destined  them  by  his 
eternal  decree ;  so  he  has  his  judgments  against  the  reprobate, 
by  which  he  may  execute  his  counsel  concerning  them.  Those, 
therefore,  whom  he  created  for  the  reproach  of  life  and  the 
destruction  of  death,  that  they  might  be  organs  of  his  anger, 
and  examples  of  his  severity,  that  they  may  come  to  their  end,  he 
sometimes  deprives  of  the  power  of  hearing  his  word,  sometimes 

makes  them  more  blind  and  stupid  by  the  preaching  of  it 

Therefore,  that  Supreme  Disposer  makes  a  way  for  his  predesti- 
nation, when  he  leaves  those  in  blindness,  without  the  communi- 
cation of  his  light  whom  he  has  reprobated."  So,  again,  "  Let 
this  be  the  sum;  since  the  will  of  God  is  said  to  be  the  cause  of 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  103 

all  things,  that  his  providence  is  appointed  to  be  the  ruler  in  all 
the  counsels  and  works  of  men ;  so  that  it  not  only  works  its 
power  in  the  elect,  who  are  governed  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  but 
also  compels  the  compliance  of  the  reprobated 

All  must  admit  that  in  one  sense  the  creative  decree  of  God 
stands  back  of  all  other  causes  of  human  actions,  for  had  God 
not  created  man,  the  actions  would  not  have  taken  place.  But 
that  by  no  means  necessitates  the  idea  that  God  has  decreed  all 
the  actions  of  the  rational  creatures  he  decreed  to  make,  but 
Calvinism  insists  that  he  did  so  decree,  and  thus  makes  him  the 
primary  cause  in  the  sense  of  efficiency.  Pictet,  a  Genevan  Cal- 
vinist,  in  his  work  on  Theology,  bearing  the  imprint  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Board  of  Publication,  says :  "  Moreover,  the  immutabil- 
ity of  the  decrees  incontestibly  proves  that  there  are  no  co7idi- 
tional  decrees — that  is,  such  as   depend  on  a  condition  which 

may  or  may  not  be  performed It  is  not,  indeed,  to  be 

denied  that  the  promises  and  the  threatenings  of  God  are  condi- 
tional, but  from  these  no  conclusion  can  be  drawn  for  conditional 
decrees.  For  promises  do  not  determine  the  future  event,  as 
decrees  do." 

The  doctrine  of  the  foregoing  is  exactly  what  Dr.  Crosby 
declares  the  stumbling-block.  He  himself  escapes  the  fatality 
of  the  system  by  simply  going  (coming)  over  to  the  doctrine  of 
conditional  decrees,  declaring  that  "  Pharaoh  is  hardened  and 
Moses  has  mercy  shown  him  after  the  two  had  either  rejected  or 
accepted  grace.  It  is  then  God  acts  the  potter,  and  does  as  he 
pleases  with  the  clay,  making  one  vessel  to  dishonor  and  the 
other  to  honor.  If  the  allusion  to  the  potter  is  to  refer  to  any 
thing  else  than  God's  action  upon  men  already  decided  i7i  their 
position,  then  it  must  be  interpreted  as  God's  creation  of  some 
men  to  be  damned.  There  is  no  alternative''''  (italics  here  mine). 
Certainly ;  that  is  what  Cumberland  Presbyterians  have  all  the 
while  claimed  to  be  the  logical,  inevitable  conclusion  of  the 
admitted  Calvinistic  premises  of   the  universal,  unconditional 


I04 


DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 


decree  of  election  and  reprobation,  without  reference  to  any- 
thing foreseen  in  the  persons  so  elected  or  reprobated.  Dr. 
Crosby  says,  speaking  of  justifying  faith :  "  That  first  faith,  the 
yielding  to  God's  grace  is  man's  own  act,  and  not  God's,  and 
hence  the  formula  in  the  gospel  is,  '  Thy  faith  hath  saved  thee.' 
It  is  a  complete  upsetting  of  common  sense  and  a  mystification 
of  fruitless  despair  to  put  any  thing  behind  the  will  of  man 
when  this  faith  is  demanded  of  him  by  God."  Certainly  the 
theological  world  does  move,  when  a  recognized  leader  in  a  Cal- 
vinistic  Church  with  a  stroke  of  his  pen  demolishes  what  has 
been  regarded  as  the  stronghold  of  the  doctrine  of  unconditional 
predestination,  admits  that  the  usual  Calvinistic  interpretation 
of  Romans  ix.  involves  the  doctrine  of  God's  creation  of  some 
men  to  be  damned,  and  declares  "'Paul  never  taught  such  a  doc- 
trine.''' 

Permissive  Decrees  no  Relief. 

To  relieve  the  doctrine  of  universal  decree  from  the  odium  of 
making  God  the  efficient  cause  of  sin,  the  advocates  of  the  doc- 
trine propose  to  call  the  decrees  in  relation  to  evil  permissive,  as 
distinguished  from  decrees  relating  to  good.  Thus,  Pictet,  who 
is  high  Calvinistic  authority,  explains:  "  Besides  the  immutability 
and  eternity  of  God's  decrees,  we  must  say  something  of  their 
extent.  This  is  so  great,  that  nothing  takes  place  in  the  world 
which  God  hath  not  decreed  should  take  place ;  still,  it  is  certain 
that  God  is  differently  concerned  in  these  events,  according  as 
they  are  either  good  or  evil ;  the  good  he  hath  decreed  to  do,  the 
evil  only  to  permit."  The  following  seems  very  contradictory : 
"And  yet,  since  nothing  can  happen  contrary  to  the  will  of  God, 
we  say  that  he  permits  evil,  though  he  in  no  way  approves  it ;  " 
which  amounts  to  this,  that  evil  is  according  to  the  will  of  God, 
"  since  nothing  can  happen  contrary  to  the  will  of  God,"  but 
"  he  in  no  way  approves  of  it ;  "  which  is  to  say  that  God  in  no 
way  approves  of  that  which  is  in  accordance  with  his  will ! 
Whether  the  universal  decree  necessarily  locates  in  the  will  of 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  105 

God  the  efficient  cause  of  evil,  equally  with  the  efficient  cause  of 
good,  Pictet  himself  will  thus  testify,  the  italics  being  his  own : 
"  From  this  will  be  inferred  what  answer  must  be  given  to  the 
following  question —  WhetJKf  the  end  of  every  viands  life  is,  with 
all  its  circumstances,  so  unchaJigeably  fixed  by  the  decree  of  God, 
that  he  can  not  depart  out  of  life  at  any  other  period  of  time  or 
by  another  ki7id  of  death,  tha7i  that  which  actually  falls  to  his 
lot  f  For  if  all  that  happens  in  the  world  was  known  to  God 
from  eternity,  and  if  nothing  could  be  foreknown  b)^  God  which 
he  did  not  also  decree  should  take  place,  it  follows  that  the  end 
of  human  life  is  fixed  and  determined  by  God."  Thus  Pictet 
teaches  not  only  that  the  divine  decree  has  the  same  efficiency 
in  relation  to  evil  in  the  lives  of  men,  that  it  has  to  good,  btft 
also  to  all  the  circumstances  that  are  the  proximate  causes  of  the 
evil,  as  to  those  that  are  the  causes  of  the  good.  By  this  teach- 
ing, the  victim  of  the  murderer  falls  at  the  very  moment,  in  the 
very  place,  by  the  hand,  the  pistol,  the  very  ball,  decreed  by 
God,  who  foreknew  it  would  all  happen,  but  could  foreknow  it 
only  because  he  had  decreed  it.  Thus,  the  murderer  and  the 
murdered,  in  the  fulfillment  of  an  eternal  decree,  were  carried 
straight  from  their  birth,  one  to  his  tragic  end  upon  the  scaffold, 
the  other  to  his  fall  by  the  wayside,  the  chain  of  circumstances 
in  both  cases  being  alike  divinely  predetermined  of  such  a  char- 
acter as  inevitably  to  issue  in  the  respective  events.  Such  a 
theory  leaves  not  a  trace  of  a  foundation  for  any  just  ideas  of 
moral  law,  freedom,  responsibility,  or  rewards  and  punishments. 
That  the  practical  bearing  of  the  doctrine  of  universal  decree 
is  pernicious  must  be  manifest,  and  facts  sustain  the  decision. 
It  is  related  that  a  Landgrave  of  Turing,  being  admonished  that 
his  vile  conversation  and  wicked  conduct  were  endangering  his 
soul,  made  this  defense :  '^Si  prcsdestinatus  sum,  iiulla  peccata 
poterunt  ?nihi  regmitn  coelorti?n  auferre ;  prcEscitus,  7iulla  opera. 
mihi  illud  valebunt  conferre  ;  "  which  may  be  thus  rendered  into 
English  :  "  If  I  am  elected,  no  sins  can  snatch  the  kingdom  of 


Io6         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

heaven  from  me ;  if  reprobated,  no  good  deeds  can  avail  to  pro- 
cure it  for  me."  Commenting  on  the  foregoing  circumstance,  a 
writer  justly  says,  "  It  is  an  objection  (to  Calvinism)  not  more 
old  than  common,  but  such,  I  must  confess,  that  I  have  never 
found  a  satisfactory  answer  to  it,  from  the  pen  of  Supralapsarian 
or  Sublapsarian,  within  the  small  compass  of  my  reading."  It 
is  not  to  be  denied  that  good  men  have  truly  believed  the  doc- 
trine here  condemned  as  essentially  pernicious  in  its  practical 
tendency.  Nor  may  it  be  denied  that  a  man  of  high  moral  pur- 
pose may  be  sustained  in  a  virtuous  life,  and  be  stimulated  to 
extraordinary  efforts  for  the  good  of  mankind,  by  the  conviction 
that  he  is  one  of  Heaven's  elected  favorites,  notwithstanding  his 
belief  that  whatever  is  decreed  must  come  to  pass,  and  nothing 
else  ca.n  come  to  pass.  To  others,  it  is,  as  Dr.  Crosby  declares, 
a  "  stumbling-block,"  and  one  over  which  multitudes  stumble  out 
of  all  good  into  all  evil,  for  time  and  eternity.  The  writer  has 
more  than  once  remonstrated  with  a  man  endowed  by  nature 
with  extraordinary  mental  and  physical  parts,  whom  strong 
drink  has  made  a  wreck  and  a  charge  upon  the  public,  and  the 
remonstrance  once  drew  from  him  the  following  significant 
though  irreverent  reply:  "Well,  now,  see  here;  what  the  Old 
Man  Above  says  has  to  be,  that 's  got  to  be.  He  made  you  to  be 
a  sober  man,  and  me  to  be  a  drunken  fool,  and  that 's  got  to  be." 
He  was  firm  in  his  philosophy,  which  he  thought  himself  to  be 
practically  illustrating,  and  to  be  a  sufiicient  excuse  for  his 
course  as  to  any  worthiness  or  blame.  Really,  a  philosopher 
could  say  the  same — no  less,  no  more,  on  looking  over  his  record 
for  a  day,  a  year,  or  a  life-time  :  "  I  could  not  possibly  have  done 
otherwise,  for  it  was  all  eternally  decreed  ju.st  as  it  is,  with  the 
proximate  causes  that  gave  absolute  certainty  to  every  event. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  take  any  concern  about  the  future,  for  what 
has  been  decreed  concerning  me  will  certainly  come  to  pass,  and 
by  no  possibility  can  any  thing  else  come." 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  107 

Source  of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Universal  Decree. 

There  can  be  no  question,  we  think,  that  the  fate  of  the 
heathen  world  is  the  source  of  the  universal  unconditional  decree 
of  the  Calvinistic  theology.  The  word  fate  {fatum)  signifies 
"  decree,"  that  which  is  spoken,  or  commanded.  I^eibnitz  says 
that  Mohammedan  fate  means  an  absolute  necessity,  such  that 
an  event  must  come  to  pass,  even  though  its  cause  be  avoided. 
The  Stoical  fate  found  its  necessity  in  the  "  course  of  things," 
which,  it  was  held,  could  not  possibly  be  resisted.  "  But  it  is 
agreed,"  adds  Leibnitz,  "  that  there  is  a  fatum  Christiantoii,  a 
certai?i  destiny  of  every  thing,  regulated  by  the  foreknowledge 
and  providence  of  God." 

Man  is  a  finite  creature.  The  horizon  of  his  intellectual 
vision,  like  that  of  natural  sight,  is  very  limited.  The  idea  of 
the  creation  of  the  universe  by  an  intelligent  first  cause,  if  con- 
ceived at  all,  prevails  nowhere  outside  of  those  who  have  derived 
it  from  the  Scripture.  Matter  has  been  looked  upon  as  eternal, 
and  by  many  as  having  in  itself  the  causes  of  all  events.  Hence 
was  easily  imbibed  the  doctrine  of  an  endless  series  of  causes 
and  effects,  a  chain  that  bound  every  thing — human  actions, 
words,  and  volitions  included — in  an  absolute,  inevitable  neces- 
sity. Regarding  their  deities  as  themselves  derived  and  as  hav- 
ing material  bodies,  the  heathen  philosophers  have  held  even 
their  gods,  in  common  with  themselves,  subject  to  the  sway  of 
fate, 

"  The  fixed  decree  which  not  all  heaven  can  move." 

Poetry  and  mythology  associated  fate  with  a  vague  conception 
termed  "destiny."  The  Gnostics  made  sin  an  essential  and 
eternal  property  of  matter,  and  hence  held  that  the  contamination 
of  a  soul  in  a  material  body  is  fatal  necessity.  Spinoza  taught 
materialism  and  pantheism,  making  God  the  soul  of  the  world, 
and  the  only  agent  in  the  universe,  and  yet  himself,  though  the 
author  of  both  good  and  evil,  holiness  and  sin,  subject  to  an  eter- 
nal necessity  of  acting  as  he  does.     Descartes  found  his  fatality 


lo8         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

in  an  atomic  theory,  making  mental  states  the  products  of  fortu- 
itous combinations  of  atoms,  voHtions  but  resultants  of  concur- 
rent material  forces,  and  the  universe  destitute  alike  of  design 
and  a  designer.  French  fatalism,  which  banished  God,  inscribed 
at  the  entrance  to  its  cemeteries,  "  Death  an  Eternal  Sleep,"  and. 
baptized  the  land  in  blood,  taught  that  nothing  is  but  matter, 
and  bowed  to  a  fatality  it  found  in  an  eternal  succession  of  cause 
and  effect  in  the  operation  of  material  laws.  So  in  one  way  or 
another,  all  the  nations  who  have  not  the  Bible  are  accustomed 
to  believe  in  some  source  of  an  inexorable  necessity  which 
causes  every  event  to  be  just  as  it  is. 

In  his  Intellectual  System  of  the  Universe,  Cudworth  thus 
classifies  the  teachers  of  fatality :  "First,  such  as  asserting  the 
Deity,  suppose  it  irrespectively  to  decree  and  to  determine  all 
things,  and  thereby  made  all  actions  necessary  to  us;  which 
kind  of  fate,  though  philosophers  and  other  ancient  writers, 
have  not  been  altogether  silent  of  it,  yet  it  has  been  principally 
maintained  by  some  neoteric  Christians  contrary  to  the  sense  of 
the  ancient  Church.  Secondly,  such  as  suppose  a  Deity  that,  act- 
ing wisely,  but  necessarily,  did  contrive  the  general  frame  of 
things  in  the  world ;  from  whence,  by  a  series  of  causes,  doth 
unavoidably  result  whatsoever  is  so  done  in  it ;  which  fate  is  a 
concatenation  of  causes  all  in  themselves  necessary,  and  is  that 
which  is  asserted  by  the  Stoics,  Zeno,  and  Chrysippus,  whom  the 
Jewish  Essenes  seemed  to  follow.  And,  lastly,  such  as  hold 
the  material  necessity  of  all  things  without  a  deity,  which  fate 
Epicurus  calls  the  fate  of  the  naturalists,  that  is,  indeed,  the 
atheists,  the  asserters  whereof  may  be  called  also  the  Democrit- 
ical  fatalists.^'' 

Pictet  urges,  in  support  of  the  unchangeable  fixedness  of  every 
event,  that  "  the  heathen  were  fully  persuaded  of  this  truth." 
Certainly,  the  heathen  were  persuaded  that  such  a  fatality  per- 
tains to  every  human  life  in  its  most  trivial,  as  well  as  in  its' 
important  affairs.     The  passage  from  Seneca  cited  by  Pictet,  to 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  109 

confirm  a  theological  dogma  by  a  dogma  of  heathen  philosophy, 
is  equally  apposite  as  a  proof  of  the  unity  of  fatality  in  heathen 
philosophy  and  in  the  theological  system  of  Pictet.  Seneca 
says:  "No  one  dies  too  soon,  seeing  that  he  never  could  have 
lived  longer  than  he  did ;  every  one  has  his  term  fixed,  which 
will  always  remain  fixed  where  it  is  fixed,  nor  will  any  favor  or 
endeavor  make  it  longer." 

This  bit  of  fatalistic  philosophy,  that  a  time  is  fixed  for  every 
one's  death,  before  which  he  can  not  possibly  die,  and  at  which 
lie  must  die,  "  cause  or  no  cause,"  as  the  Mohammedans  say,  has 
had  wide  currency  in  our  literature.  We  still  say,  sometimes 
seriously,  sometimes  jocularly,  "  he  can  not  die  till  his  time 
comes,"  an  expression  we  pass  along  without  thought  of  the 
meaning  in  it,  as  we  pass  familiar  coins  without  noticing  date, 
image,  or  superscription.  "  He  that  is  born  to  be  hanged  will 
never  be  drowned,"  w^as  current  in  England  a  long  time  ago,  a 
sentiment  Shakespeare  ingeniously  employs  in  The  Tejnpest, 
making  Gonzales,  the  honest  old  counselor,  find  comfort,  in  the 
height  of  the  storm,  in  what  he  regards  evidence  that  the  Boat- 
swain is  born  to  be  hung :  "  I  have  great  comfort  of  this  fellow ; 
methinks  he  hath  no  drowning  mark  upon  him ;  his  complexion 
is  perfect  gallows.  Stand  fast,  good  Fate,  to  his  hanging  !  Make 
the  rope  of  his  destiny  our  cable,  for  our  own  doth  little  advan- 
tage!    If  he  be  not  born  to  be  hanged,  our  case  is  miserable." 

Fatality  Grafted  Upon  Christianity. 

Referring  again  to  Cudworth's  grouping  of  fatalists  in  three 
classes,  it  will  be  seen  that  his  first  class  embraces  those  who 
suppose  Deity  "  irrespectively  to  decree  and  determine  all 
things,"  and,  thereby,  as  that  author  asserts,  "  make  all  actions 
necessary  to  us."  We  are  aware  that  many  Calvinists  deny  the 
sequence  Cudworth  asserts,  as  flowing  from  a  universal  decree 
determining  all  events,  and  so  deny  fatality,  where  Cudworth 
asserts  it.     But  if  the  necessity  arising  from  "  the  course  of  nat- 


no  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

ure,"  or  from  "the  nature  of  matter,"  or  from  a  "fortuitous 
concourse  of  atoms,"  be  properly  called  fatality,  why  may  we 
not,  with  I^eibnitz,  call  the  necessity  imposed  by  the  eternal, 
universal  decree,  or  the  "  certain  destiny  of  every  thing,  regu- 
lated by  the  foreknowledge  and  providence  of  God,"  fatality, 
or,  in  the  designation  of  lycibnitz,  fatiwi  Christianum  f  Surely, 
the  decree  of  an  omnipotent  being — which  decree  is  "  the  only 
reason  why  any  thing  comes  to  pass" — does  not  make  events 
less  certain  or  necessary  than  did  the  imaginary  causes  of  the 
fatality  of  the  heathen  conception.  If  Calvinism  teaches  that 
(Pictet)  "  the  end  of  every  one's  life,  with  all  its  circumstances,  is 
so  unchangeably  fixed  that  he  can  not  depart  out  of  life  at  any 
other  period  of  time,  or  by  any  other  kind  of  death  than  that 
which  actually  falls  to  his  lot,"  and  the  Stoics  taught  precisely 
the  same,  why  should  we  call  i-t  fatality,  when  the  necessity  arises 
out  of  an  eternal  succession  of  cause  and  effect,  as  the  Stoics 
taught,  and  deny  that  it  is  fatality  when  the  necessity  flows  from 
an  eternal  decree  of  God,  as  Calvinism  teaches?  If  it  is  fatality 
in  one  case  it  is  in  the  other.  Whatever  is  the  practical  bearing 
of  the  Stoic  philosophy,  that  is  logically  the  practical  bearing  of 
the  Calvinistic  doctrine  of  the  divine  decree  of  whatsoever 
comes  to  pass.  Volition,  indeed,  there  is,  which  consciousness 
asserts,  but  the  fatiun  Stoicum  and  the  fatiun  Christiayiuni  equal- 
ly and  utterly  preclude  the  possibility  of  other  volitions  than 
those  that  come ;  so  that,  according  to  both  these  fatalistic  the- 
ories, our  volitions  are  not  less  fixed  in  their  character,  and  in 
their  places  in  an  eternally-ordained  series  of  sequences,  than 
the  flinty  molecules  in  a  granite  boulder.  We  do  not  dwell  upon 
this  subject  because  of  any  supposed  ability  to  suggest  a  new 
thought  where  almost  unlimited  discussion  has  engaged  all  the 
powers  of  logic  and  learning;  nor  simply  to  insist  on  calling 
things  by  their  right  names,  as  we  understand  them,  and  by 
names  odious  to  brethren  who  diS"er  with  us;  but  to  come 
at  an  understanding  of  the  very  foundation  on  which  rests  the 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  Ill 

difference,  a  difference  great  and  vastly  important,  between  the 
system  of  theology  taught  by  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian 
Church  and  that  system  against  which  it  is  a  protest. 

Cudworth  further  asserts  of  deistic  fatality  that,  "  although 
philosophers  and  ancient  writers  have  not  altogether  been  silent 
of  it,  yet  it  has  been  maintained  principally  by  some  neoteric 
Christians,  contrary  to  the  sense  of  the  ancient  Church^  Not  to 
the  ancient  Church  only,  but,  as  we  verily  believe,  to  the  Script- 
ures also,  is  this  doctrine  in  the  most  positive  antagonism.  The 
apostles  warned  the  Churches,  as  in  Colossians  ii.  8,  to  "  beware 
lest  any  delude  them  by  means  of  an  empty  and  deceitful  philos- 
ophy," in  connection  with  which  passage  Bloomlield  observes 
that  Paul  condemns,  and  cautions  the  Colossians  against,  the 
Grecian  philosophy  as  sure  to  deceive  them  in  regard  to  religion ; 
and  the  same  writer  quotes  Warburton  {Divine  Legation)  as  say- 
ing that  "the  apostles  always  speak  in  terms  of  contempt  or 
abhorrence  of  the  Grecian  philosophy,"  especially  of  the  philos- 
ophy of  the  Gnostics  and  Stoics,  both  of  whom  were  fatalists. 
The  religion  of  the  Gnostics,  in  the  first  centuries  of  Christian- 
ity, was  a  mixture  of  their  philosophy  and  the  teachings  of  the 
Bible,  but  so  unsound  and  absurd  that  the  "  orthodox  Fathers 
condemned  their  doctrines  respecting  grace,  faith,  election,  and 
salvation  as  heretical  and  unscriptural."  The  effect  of  the 
apostles'  warning  in  regard  to  the  deceptive  and  dangerous 
tendencies  of  the  fatalistic  philosophies  seems  to  have  been  to 
beget  in  the  primitive  Church  a  strong  aversion  to  these  philos- 
ophies, and  even  contempt  for  them.  As  a  consequence,  the 
writings  of  the  Fathers  show,  as  is  asserted,  no  trace  of  fatalistic 
predestination  before  the  time  of  Augustine.  Calvin  says  (Inst, 
lib.  ii.,  cap.  5,  sec.  17),  in  defending  his  doctrines:  "  I  know  that 
they  may  quote  Origen  and  Jerome  in  support  of  their  exposi- 
tion ;  and  I,  in  my  turn,  could  oppose  Augustine  to  them."  In 
commenting  on  this  passage,  a  careful  critic  observes :  "  It  ap- 
pears from  this  passage  that  Calvin  himself  was  aware  that  of 


112  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

all  the  ancients  Augustine  was  the  only  one  favorable  to  his 
opinions."  In  the  same  connection  Calvin  charges  Augustine 
himself  with  inconsistency  in  saying  that  the  hardening  and 
blinding  (of  the  reprobate)  do  not  refer  to  the  operation,  but  to 
the  prescience  of  God. 

Augustine  the  Author  op  the  Doctrine. 

The  introduction  of  the  doctrine  of  predestination  into 
Christian  theology  is  usually  ascribed  to  Augustine,  who  was 
born  A.D  354.  A  passage  in  Cicero,  relating  to  the  worth  and 
dignity  of  philosophy,  is  said  to  have  first  aroused  his  mind  to 
earnest  investigation,  and  for  ten  years  he  gave  himself  to  the 
study  of  heathen  philosophy,  the  simplicity  of  the  Scriptures 
having  no  attraction  for  his  taste.  He  became  a  professed  Man- 
ichaean,  which  means  a  fatalist  of  the  sternest  type.  Later  he 
abandoned  Manichgeism,  pronouncing  it  unsatisfying,  and,  after 
trying  the  Platonic  philosophy  for  a  short  time,  was  led,  through 
the  influence  of  Ambrose,  Bishop  of  Milan,  to  embrace  Chris- 
tianity. To  the  study  of  the  Bible  he  betook  himself,  hoping  to 
find  therein  "  those  truths  which  he  had  already  made  himself 
acquainted  with  from  the  Platonic  philosophy."  By  and  by  he 
abandoned  Platonic  Christianity,  and  professed  a  most  radical 
conversion  to  the  faith  and  experience  that  only  the  direct  power 
of  God  could  save  him  from  the  downward  tendencies  of  the  un- 
godly impulses  of  his  nature,  the  struggles  of  mind  attending 
which  part  of  his  life  are  set  forth  in  the  eighth  and  ninth  books 
of  his  Confessions. 

Augustine  has  been  regarded  an  indifferent  scholar,  critics 
asserting  that,  while  he  had  studied  the  Latin  authors  well,  he 
knew  but  little  of  Greek,  and  of  Hebrew  nothing.  He  was 
evidently  a  man  of  powerful  impulses,  his  life  exhibiting  very 
great  extremes  and  contradictions.  When  bad,  he  was  "  exceed- 
ingly dissipated."  When  he  became  a  Manichaean  fatalist,  he 
avowed  and  taught   his   philosophy.      Later,  in  Platonism  his 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  113 

mind  was  led  to  the  loftiest  spiritual  contemplations.  When  he 
abandoned  Manichaeism  he  bitterly  opposed  it.  When  brought 
to  a  realization  of  his  condition  as  a  sinner,  prostrate  under  a 
fig-tree,  and  agonizing  in  prayer  for  pardon,  he  heard  (he  said), 
as  from  the  lips  of  a  boy  or  maiden,  the  command,  "  Take,  read," 
which  he  interpreted  to  mean  that  by  opening  a  copy  of  Paul's 
epistles  he  would  learn  his  duty  from  the  first  passage  that  met 
his  eye,  which  passage  proved  to  be  Romans  xiii.  13.  When  he 
controverted  the  doctrine  of  the  British  monk  Pelagius,  who 
denied  sin  and  guilt  in  the  race  as  a  result  of  Adam's  transgres- 
sion, and  asserted  man's  self-determining  power  to  enter  on  a 
life  well-pleasing  to  God,  Augustine  went  to  the  extreme  of 
asserting  the  effect  of  the  fall  to  be  such  that  it  is  impossible  for 
man  to  do  any  thing  toward  his  salvation  till  after  conversion, 
which  he  declared  as  much  an  act  of  God  as  the  creation  of  a 
world  is,  and  thence  to  the  logical  conclusion  that,  since  only 
some  were  converted,  God  had  eternally  decreed  to  bestow  con- 
verting grace  on  some,  to  withhold  it  from  others,  thus  hinging 
man's  destiny  to  everlasting  good  or  ill  on  the  absolute,  uncon- 
ditional decree,  instead  of  the  Manichsean  fate  which  he  had 
previously  avowed  and  taught. 

Some,  however,  ascribe  to  predestination  an  earlier  appear- 
ance in  the  Church  than  the  time  of  Augustine.  Dr.  K.  De 
Pressense,  in  his  Heresy  and  Early  Christiajiity ,  attributes  it  to 
Valentinus,  a  Gnostic  of  the  Second  Century.  According  to  the 
mixture  of  heathen  philosophy  and  Scripture  taught  by  Valen- 
tinus, human  history,  before  it  is  enacted  in  our  world  of  misery 
and  darkness,  is  unfolded  in  the  higher  sphere  of  the  ideal.  The 
tragedy  of  existence  is  played  in  three  parts  :  "  First  in  the  high- 
est region,  called  the  pleroma ;  then  in  the  intermediate  sphere, 
and  lastly  upon  earth."  According  to  this  mixture  of  the  "  most 
purely  ethereal  and  most  grossly  material  elements,"  everything 
that   transpires  on  earth  is  absolutely  fixed  in  every  respect, 


1 1 4  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

being  determined  in  the  antecedent  ideal  sphere,  and  thus  most 
inexorably  fated  to  be  as  it  is.  The  Gnostics,  though  reckoned 
a  heretical  Christian  sect,  put  God  far  away  from  the  world,  in 
what  they  called  the  "  abyss,"  confounding  him  with  it.  Around 
the  "abyss"  is  the  "  pleroma,"  inhabited  by  the  aeons,  who  are 
emanations  from  God,  and  fulfill  various  functions.  Of  these 
aeons  some  Gnostics  held  that  there  were  three  hundred  and 
sixty-five.  The  one  who  created  the  material  world  was  Demi- 
urge. The  redeemer  of  the  world  is  the  aeon  called  Christ. 
They  divide  the  human  race  into  three  classes,  all  of  one  class, 
and  as  many  of  the  second  class  as  have  received  a  certain  influ- 
ence from  the  pleroma,  being  predestinated  to  salvation,  and  the 
remainder  of  the  second  class,  with  all  the  third,  doomed  to  in- 
evitable annihilation. 

The  lyONG  Struggle  with  Philosophy. 

In  later  periods  we  find  many  distinguished  leaders  in  the 
Church  so  mingling  heathen  philosophy  and  Christianity  as  to 
evolve  fatalistic  and  othenvise  pernicious  theological  sj^stems. 
Thomas  Aquinas,  born  in  1224,  is  a  representative  of  the  Scho- 
lastic Philosoph}^,  uniting  Idealism  and  Realism,  which  philos- 
ophy Aquinas  married  to  his  theology.  Nothing  more  fully 
exhibits  the  long,  severe  struggle  of  the  simple  truth  of  the  gos- 
pel with  these  vain  philosophies  than  the  abstractions  which 
employed  the  powers  of  the  great  disputants  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  when,  as  one  has  expressed  it,  "  The  strong  undercurrent 
was  Platonism,  but  the  Aristotelic  Philosophy  the  tide  that 
flowed  on  the  surface,  propelled  by  every  wind  and  storm  that 
vexed  the  Church."  Philosophj^  had  arrived  at  the  conculsion 
that  the  only  things  in  the  universe  are  matter  and  form,  and 
that  form  has  an  actual  existence  apart  from  matter,  and,  then, 
that  forms  of  all  things  have  pre-existence,  and  that  they  are 
the  ends  to  which  nature,  in  all  its  operations  and  products,  is 
instinctively  and  unceasingly  working ;  and,  so,  that  these  eter- 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  1 15 

nal  forms — "ideas"  Plato  called  them — of  necessity  determined 
exactly  what  every  material  existence  should  be.  Now,  some 
of  the  Christian  scholars  of  those  times  were  competent  to  the 
task  of  reconciling  Christianity  with  such  a  philosophy  by  sim- 
ply transferring  these  eternal  forms  to  the  Divine  Mind,  calling 
them  decrees,  and  finding  there  a  creative  energy  that  had  to 
make  the  world  exactly  in  the  eternal  molds.  So  theirs  was  a 
world  under  fatalistic  necessity.  It  was  the  boast  of  the  follow- 
ers of  Aquinas,  called  Thomists,  that  their  leader,  "St.  Thomas," 
had  "  rescued  Aristotle  from  atheism,  and  secured  him  for  ortho- 
doxy," which  "reconciling"  lay  in  identifying  the  eternal 
"  forms"  of  the  philosopher  with  the  eternal  "  decrees  "  of  God; 
and  this  made  the  Thomists  Nominalistic  in  philosophy,  Augus- 
tinian  in  theology.  The  process  of  "  reconciling"  theology  with 
science — with  cosmology,  geology,  evolution,  etc. — is  still  in 
progress,  and  it  is  most  manifest  that  with  some  of  these  peace- 
makers plain,  scriptural  theology  is  about  all  reconciled  away. 
Yet  man  will  study  the  problems  of  the  world  in  which  he  lives, 
and  rightly,  and  in  the  long  run  there  has  been  a  grand  advance 
in  the  true  reconciliation  of  our  interpretations  of  God's  two 
books  of  nature  and  revelation.  That  we  have  left  behind  us 
the  abstractions  of  the  Schoolmen — some  of  them  so  abstract  as 
almost  to  make  one  dizzy  in  the  effort  to  grasp  them — let  us 
thank  God  and  breathe  freer.  The  Church  is  certainly  making 
progress  in  eliminating  from  her  theology  the  heathen  elements 
which  crept  in  from  the  old  philosophies,  and  if  she  does  not 
bow  to  the  materialistic  tendencies  of  these  times  she  will  do 
well.  Ignorance  and  error  have  caused  countless  wars,  losses, 
and  sufferings.  "  Knowledge  is  the  wing  wherewith  we  fly  to 
heaven,"  said  the  greatest  genius  of  his  century,  if  not  of  all 
the  centuries ;  and  the  divine  Teacher  declares :  "  Ye  shall  know 
the  truth,  and  the  truth  shall  make  you  free."  On  the  rock  of 
truth  only  can  man  come  to  permanent  rest  and  abiding  good. 
Truth  abideth  forever. 


Il6  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 


CHAPTER  IV. 

DECREES   IN   THE   CREEDS   OF  THE  CHURCHES. 

^  I  ^HIS  chapter  is  written  with  a  sincere  desire  to  arrive  as 
clearly  as  possible  at  what  is  regarded  very  important 
truth.  To  the  writer  it  seems  of  vital  importance,  at  this  junct- 
ure of  affairs,  that  Cumberland  Presbyterians  stand  fast  in  the 
liberty  wherewith  the  truth  has  made  them  free,  and  that  they 
be  not  in  any  wise  entangled  with  the  3'oke  of  doctrinal  bond- 
age imposed  by  the  Westminster  Confession.  There  are  good 
people  who  greatly  dislike  what  is  usually  termed  discussion, 
much  preferring  that  you  state  your  own  views,  without  refer- 
ence to  what  other  people  believe  or  teach.  These  good  people 
forget  that,  by  contrasting  it  with  error  truth  is  often  much 
more  readily  seen  in  its  simplicity,  beauty,  and  consistency 
Tracing  doctrines  to  their  sources,  comparing  them  with  ad- 
mitted truths,  and  noting  carefully  their  logical  sequences,  are 
helpful  means  of  forming  a  correct  judgment  as  to  their  sound- 
ness. Christ  himself  reasoned  much  with  those  who  attended 
his  instructions,  and  sat  in  the  temple,  hearing  the  doctors  and 
asking  them  questions.  Stephen  disputed  with  those  who 
assembled  in  the  synagogue  of  the  Libertines,  and  Cyrenians, 
Alexandrians,  Cilicians,  "and  Asiatics,  who  "were  not  able  to 
resist  the  wisdom  and  the  spirit  by  which  he  spake."  From  the 
time  Paul  encountered  the  Athenians  in  the  midst  of  Mars  Hill, 
until  this  day,  truth  has  been  winning  its  way  in  the  world 
through  discussion,  and  thus  will  go  on  to  whatever  victories 
yet  await  it.     President  Garfield  said  that  "unsettled  questions 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  1 17 

have  no  mercy  on  the  peace  of  nations,"  and  another  of  our 
political  sages  said,  with  equal  truth  and  significance,  that 
"nothing  is  settled  until  it  is  settled  right."  The  same  things 
are  equally  true  in  regard  to  Churches;  for  doctrinal  error  in  a 
creed  will  be  a  disturbing  element,  and  an  unsettled  question,  so 
long  as  it  is  not  settled  right.  Questions  rooting  in  the  doctrine 
of  decrees,  in  1837,  rent  the  Presbyterian  Church  into  nearly 
equal  parts.  The  subsequent  reunion  in  iS6g,  when  many  of 
the  leaders  of  the  former  great  discussion  had  passed  awaj^  is 
now  followed  by  a  grander,  but  more  peaceful,  upheaval  of 
thought,  and  b}'  a  seeming  determination  to  break  the  yoke  of 
theological  bondage  endured  for  generations. 

AuGusTiNiAN  Predestination. 

It  seems  well  established  that  through  Augustine,  early  in  the 
Fifth  Centur>',  the  doctrine  of  predestination  received  its  first 
public  recognition  in  the  Church.  Various  sects  had  existed, 
Simon  Magus  being  supposed  to  have  represented  one,  whose 
doctrines,  as  those  of  the  Basilidians  and  the  Valentinians,  were 
fatalistic,  making  man's  eternal  destiny  the  issue  of  some  power 
over  which  he  could  exercise  no  possible  control ;  but  these 
were  all  discarded  by  the  Church  as  heretical.  When  Pelagian- 
ism  sprang  up,  denying  what  is  called  original  sin,  and  teaching 
that  ever^r  man  has  in  himself  the  power  of  choosing  good  or 
evil,  and  so  can  obtain  salvation  by  choosing  it  and  living  for  it, 
and  that  predestination  to  life  is  always  founded  on  this  choos- 
ing on  man's  part,  Augustine  appeared  as  the  bitter  opponent  of 
these  views,  his  own  doctrine  being  formulated  thus :  "  By  the 
sm  of  Adam  human  nature  became  physically  and  morally  cor- 
rupt. From  it  evil  lust  has  come,  which,  since  it  has  become 
the  inheritance  of  all  men  by  generation,  has  come  to  be  original 
sin,  in  itself  damnatory,  and  prevails  so  much  over  the  will  of 
the  natural  man  that  he  can  no  longer  will  what  is  good,  as  he 
should  do  out  of  love  to  God,  but  sins  continually,  however  his 


Il8  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

actions  may  externally  appear.  From  this  corrupt  mass  of 
humanity  God  resolved  from  all  eternity  to  save  some  through 
Christ,  and  leave  the  rest  to  deserv'ed  perdition.  Therefore, 
divine  grace,  alone  and  irresistibly,  works  faith  in  the  elect,  as 
well  as  love  and  power  to  do  good.  The  others,  to  whom  the 
grace  of  God  is  not  imparted,  have  no  advantage  from  Christ, 
and  fall  into  condemnation,  even  an  eternal  one."  These  Augus- 
tinian  views  were  formally  sanctioned  b)"  the  decisions  of  Afri- 
can synods,  and  by  Zosimus  in  the  West ;  "  although  their 
author,"  says  Mosheim,  "  himself  felt  how  dangerous  they  might 
be  made  to  morals,  and  was  able  to  bring  them  forward  in 
instruction  in  no  other  than  an  inconsequential  way."  The 
same  author  states  that  "the  Augustinian  doctrine  of  grace  was 
never  adopted  in  the  East,"  and  that  "even  in  the  West,  where 
this  doctrine  had  been  ecclesiastically  ratified,  there  were  never 
more  than  a  few  who  held  to  it  in  its  fearful  consequences.  Its 
injurious  practical  effects  could  not  be  overlooked,  and  appeared 
occasionally  in  outward  manifestation." 

Augustinian  and  Westminster  Fatalism. 

From  the  foregoing  it  will  be  seen  that  Augustine  made  the 
salvation  of  "  some  "  to  depend  on  an  eternal  decree  and  irresist- 
ible grace ;  that  "  the  rest,"  by  the  divine  purpose,  utter  inability 
of  will  to  any  good,  and  the  withholding  of  irresistible  grace,  of 
necessity  "fall  into  condemnation,  even  an  eternal  one."  Why 
that  doctrine  is  not  really  as  fatalistic  as  Manichaeism,  or  why 
it  is  a  fatalism  any  better,  it  would  be  difficult  to  tell,  especially 
if  one  were  of  "  the  rest "  left  to  perdition.  Rejoicing  in  the 
truth,  we  are  glad  to  be  able  to  quote  such  words  as  the  follow- 
ing, from  Dr.  Crosby's  tractate  on  Calvinism  :  "  But  Augustine, 
in  his  zeal  against  the  errors  of  Pelagius,  not  only  made  the 
'  divine  grace  the  foundation  of  man's  salvation,  but  made  it  arbi- 
trarily discriminate  between  man  and  man,  contrary  to  the 
Scripture    testimony  that    God    wishes  all    men  to  be   saved 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  1 19 

(i  Tim.  ii.  4).  He  thus  denies  man's  ability  to  accept  the  divine 
grace.  This  Augustinian  theology  rendered  man  passive  by 
making  God  to  do  all  in  the  matter  of  salvation.  The  gospel 
invitation  addressed  to  all  was  (by  it)  not  meant  for  all,  but  only 
for  those  whom  God  would  compel  to  accept  it.  The  entreaties 
of  God's  word  to  sinners  were  thus  rendered  insincere,  and  our 
Lord's  words,  'Ye  will  not  come  unto  me  that  ye  might  have 
life,'  should  have  been,  '  God  wills  that  ye  should  not  come  unto 
me  that  ye  might  have  life,'  or,  '  God  has  not  given  you  life 
whereby  you  can  come  unto  me.'  "  Most  certainly  the  theolog- 
ical world  does  move !  For  ascribing  to  Augustinianism  the 
very  errors  here  charged  upon  it  bj^  Dr.  Crosby,  Cumberland 
Presbyterians  have  been  a  thousand  times  declared  inconsistent 

and  unjust.     What  is  more  remarkable  still,  Dr.  Crosby  charges 

V 
upon   the  Westminster  Confession  the  error  of  destroying  the 

freedom  of  the  will,  which  is  exactly  the  same  charge  that  Cum- 
berland Presbyterians  have  alwaj-s  brought  against  that  creed. 
Though  it  comes  late,  this  testimony  from  the  other  side  is  grat- 
ifying, not  only,  however,  as  some  justification  of  our  protest 
against  the  Westminster  Confession,  but  as  an  indication  that 
the  day  may  not  be  distant  when  the  two  Churches  will  see  eye 
to  eye  on  all  the  great  doctrines  of  salvation. 

"  Calvin  adopted  the  extreme  views  of  Augustine,"  says  Dr. 
Crosby,  "and  pressed  them,  as  did  Augustine,  under  the  plea  of 
logic,  but  it  is  just  here,  where  these  good  men  left  God's  word 
for  their  logical  inferences,  that  they  go  astray.  The  Semi- 
Pelagians  were  a  rebuke  to  Augustine,  and  justly  so.  The 
Arminians  were  still  more  justly  a  rebuke  to  the  Calvinism  of 
the  Reformation.  The  Heidleberg  and  Westminster  Confes- 
sions (and  no  symbols  can  compare  with  them  for  clear  state- 
ment of  Scripture  truth),  with  all  their  excellence,  have  the 
philosophic  defects  to  which  we  refer,  and  which  are  the  dead 
flies  in  the  apothecary's  ointment."  Now,  in  all  kindness  be  it 
said,  the  very  thing   that  Cumberland  Presbyterians  did  with   / 


I20  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

Westttiinsterism  was  to  cast  the  "dead  flies"  of  the  fatalistic 
philosophy  out  of  the  theological  "ointment." 

Logical  Inferences  Not  to  be  Denied. 

The  so-called  "  philosophical  defects  "  attributed,  in  the  forego- 
ing concession,  to  the  two  Confessions  named,  seem  to  be  that  of 
pressing  a  doctrine  to  its  "logical  inferences."  Yet,  it  seems  in- 
credible that  so  scholarly  a  divine  can  mean  to  ask  us  to  accept 
a  doctrine,  if  to  follow  it  to  its  logical  inferences  requires  us  to 
leave  God's  word.  Logical  inferences  must  be  true,  if  that  of 
which  they  are  inferences  is  true.  If  that  law  fails  us,  all  is 
gone.  Here,  we  may  kindly  suggest,  a  great  deal  of  trouble  has 
arisen,  for  Calvinists  have  written  countless  volumes  to  deny, 
and  attempt  to  disprove,  the  "logical  inferences"  of  their  own 
ptemises.  If  God  has  unconditionally  decreed  whatsoever 
comes  to  pass,  and  any  human  being  fails  of  salvation,  it  is  not 
in  the  power  of  reason  to  avert  the  logical  inference  that  God 
unconditionally  decreed  that  the  .said  human  being  should  fail 
of  salvation.  The  Calvinistic  system  utterly  excludes  conditional 
decrees,  and  conditions  God's  prescience  on  the  absolute  decree. 
He  who  accepts  the  premises  of  Calvinism  must  accept  all  its 
logical  inferences,  and  if  to  follow  these  inferences  is  to  leave 
God's  word,  then  must  we  abandon  the  system  with  its  infer- 
ences, or  stultify  reason.  Truer  words  were  never  spoken  than 
those  of  Bishop  Tomlinson,  touching  this  point:  "But  Calvin- 
ism, however  modified  or  explained,  while  its  characteristic 
principles  are  preserved,  wall  always  be  found  liable  to  the  most 
serious  objections  ;  and  if  those  principles  bj^  which  it  is  distin- 
guished as  a  sect  of  Christianity  be  taken  away,  it  is  no  longer 
Calvinism.  Calvinism,  in  realit}^  will  not  bear  defalcation  or 
admit  of  partial  adoption.  It  has,  at  least,  the  merit  of  being  so 
far  consistent  with  itself  Its  peculiar  doctrines,  considered  as  a 
S3^stem,  are  so  connected  and  dependent  upon  each  other  that  if 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  12I 

you  embrace  one  you  must  embrace  all ;  and  if  the  falsehood  of 
one  part  be  proved,  the  whole  falls  to  the  ground." 

In  which  is  to  be  found  inconsistency,  the  Calvinism  of  the 
times  of  the  Reformation,  or  in  that  of  the  Nineteenth  Century? 
Calvin  and  his  adherents,  indeed,  pushed  their  premises  to  their 
legitimate  conclusions,  to  their  "  logical  inferences,"  and,  in  so 
doing,  were  true  to  the  laws  of  human  reason,  which  laws  de- 
nied, no  basis  of  knowledge  remains.  A  few  sentences  from 
Calvin's  writings  will  exhibit  what  Dr.  Crosby  probably  means 
by  the  "  extreme  views  "  he  attributes  to  both  Augustine  and 
Calvin : — 

"  Therefore,  if  we  can  not  assign  a  reason  whj-  he  (God)  thinks 
his  own  worthy  of  merc}^  except  because  it  so  pleases  him, 
neither  shall  we  have  anj'  other  ground  for  his  reprobating 
others,  except  his  v.'ill." 

"  Man^^  indeed,  as  if  they  wished  to  repel  odium  from  God,  so 
acknowledge  election  that  thej^  den}-  that  any  one  is  reprobated; 
but  too  ignorantly  and  childishly ;  since  election  itself  would 
not  stand,  unless  opposed  to  reprobation.  .  .  .  Those,  therefore, 
whom  God  passes  over  he  reprobates ;  and  for  no  other  reason 
except  that  he  chooses  to  exclude  them  from  the  inheritance 
which  he  predestinates  to  his  sons." 

Of  the  decree  of  reprobation  he  says :  "I  confess  that  it  is  in- 
deed a  horrible  decree;  no  one,  however,  will  be  able  to  deny 
but  that  God  foreknew  what  v.^ould  be  the  end  of  man,  before  he 
formed  him ;  and  he  therefore  foreknew  it,  because  he  had  so 
ordained  by  his  ov/n  decree." 

"  Let  this  be  the  .sum ;  since  the  will  of  God  is  said  to  be  the 
cause  of  all  things,  that  his  providence  is  appointed  to  be  the 
ruler  in  all  the  counsels  and  works  of  men ;  so  that  it  not  only 
exerts  its  power  in  the  elect,  who  are  governed  by  the  Holy 
Spirit,  but  also  compels  the  compliance  of  the  reprobate." 

"  That  the  reprobate  do  not  obey  the  word  of  God,  when  ex- 
plained to  them,  will  be  rightly  imputed  to  the  wickedness  and 


122  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

maliciousness  of  their  own  hearts,  provided  it  be  at  the  same 
time  added  that  they  are  addicted  to  this  wickedness  because 
they  are  raised  up  by  the  just  but  inscrutable  judgment  of  God, 
to  illustrate  his  glory  by  their  damnation." 

The  foregoing  statements  are  supposed  to  indicate  some  of 
Calvin's  extreme  views :  That  reprobation  is  a  necessary  corre- 
late of  election,  and  that  the  two  arise  equally  out  of  the  good 
pleasure  of  God ;  that  God,  indeed,  foreknew  the  end  of  man, 
that  man  would  sinfully  rebel,  and  foreknew  it  because  he  had 
"so  ordained  by  his  own  decree;  "  that  God's  power  exerts  itself 
not  only  in  his  providence  toward  the  elect,  "  but  also  compels 
the  compliance  of  the  reprobate  ;  "  that,  while  the  reprobate  do 
indeed  reject  the  word  of  God  through  "the  wickedness  and 
maliciousness  of  their  own  hearts,"  yet  "they  are  addicted  to 
this  wickedness  because  they  are  raised  up  by  the  just  but  in- 
scrutable judgment  of  God,  to  illustrate  his  glory  by  their  dam- 
nation." "Extreme  views,"  surely — extreme  views  of  a  Creator 
proclaimed  "  gracious  "  and  "  merciful,"  yet  raising  up  some  men 
by  his  just  and  inscrutable  judgments  to  illustrate  his  glorj^  by 
their  damnation  for  being  carried  by  omnipotent  power  to  the 
very  end  for  which  they  had  been  created !  What  more  extreme 
views  could  mortal  mind  conceive  as  to  either  the  character  of 
the  God  men  are  asked  to  worship,  or  the  utter  hopelessness  of 
those  reprobated  for  no  other  reason  than  because  he  chose  "to 
exclude  them  from  the  inheritance  to  which  he  predestinates  his 
sons  ?  "  But  to  these  "  extreme  views  "  logical  necessity  drives 
those  holding  Calvinistic  premises ! 

Now,  if  any  good  man  is  wounded  by  this  presentation  of  a 
few  of  the  hard  sayings  of  Calvin,  and  will  yet  claim  that,  while 
he  repudiates  all  such  doctrines,  he  is  a  Calvinist,  we  must 
accept  his  repudiation  of  the  extreme  views,  but  equally  must 
insist  that  "Calvinist"  is,  in  his  case,  a  misnomer.  We  desire, 
in  this  connection,  to  repeat  and  emphasize  the  fact  that  no  Cum- 
berland Presbyterian  can  be  a  "moderate  Calvinist."     Calvinism 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHUPs-CH.  123 

can  be  expressed  in  a  very  few  words :  God  has  unchangeably 
decreed  whatsoever  comes  to  pass.  His  decree  respecting  what 
shall  be  the  end  of  every  man  is  called  predestination ;  and  pre- 
destination is  called  election  as  it  respects  those  predestinated  to 
life,  and  reprobation  in  respect  to  those  predestinated  unto 
death.  And  God  hath  not  decreed  any  thing  because  he  foresaw 
it  as  future,  or  as  that  which  would  come  to  pass  upon  known 
conditions. 

To  the  foregoing  add  the  declaration  of  an  enthusiastic  advo- 
cate and  competent  interpreter  of  Calvinism  :  "  Predestination  is 
the  all-ruling,  all-conditioning  soul  of  the  Calvinistic  system, 
upon  which  doctrine  the  admirable  power,  fullness,  depth,  and 
■consistency  of  the  system  are  directly  grounded." 

Logical  Sequences  of  Predestination. 

Predestination,  then,  is  the  all  of  the  Calvinistic  system  as 
respects  the  destiny  of  human  beings — the  eternal  decree  fixing 
what  the  end  of  every  man  shall  be,  carrying  him  straight  to  the 
mark.  To  us,  the  following  seem  to  be  unavoidable  logical 
inferences  of  the  system  as  taught  by  the  Reformers  and  by  the 
Westminster  Confession : 

I.  That  sin  is  according  to  the  good  pleasure  of  God. 

Calvin  seems  to  admit  as  much  in  this  declaration — "I 
acknowledge  that  this  is  my  doctrine,  that  Adam  fell,  not  by  the 
mere  permission  of  God  ;  but  also  by  his  secret  counsel ;  "  and 
in  this,  "  I  confess  that  I  wrote  that  the  fall  of  Adam  was  not 
accidental,  but  ordained  by  the  secret  decree  of  God." 

To  avoid  this  logical  inference,  Timothy  Dwight  makes  this 
extraordinary  shift :  "  To  support  the  objection  it  must  be  shown 
that  God  can  not  will  and  accomplish  the  existence  of  voluntary 
agents,  who,  acting  freely,  shall,  nevertheless,  act  in  accordance 
with  what  is,  upon  the  whole,  his  pleasure."  That  is-  to  say,  it  is 
in  the  power  of  God  to  create  beings  with  exactly  such  moral 
tendencies  as  will  make  it  absolutely  certain  that  they  will  do 


124         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

freely  the  evil  that  is  embraced  in  his  decrees,  for  which  evil 
they  are  then  to  be  eternally  punished.  Really,  the  vindication 
seems  worse  than  the  charge  in  the  logical  inference,  for  it  not 
only  makes  God  will  the  evil,  but  makes  him  create  and  endow 
agents  for  the  specific  purpose  of  freely  doing  the  evil,  to  which 
agents  other  ways  of  acting  are  utterly  shut  up. 

2.  That  the  human  will  acts  under  a  necessity  that  is  rightly 
called  fatalistic. 

It  may  be  asserted  that  wicked  men  choose  the  wickedness 
they  commit.  They  certainly  do  so  choose  ;  consciousness  tes- 
tifies that.  But  Calvinism  makes  the  actual  choice  the  onl)-  pos- 
sible choice.  According  to  Dwight,  they  are  so  created  and 
endowed  as  to  make  it  absolutely  certain  they  will  choose  to  do 
the  things  decreed  by  an  omnipotent  Being.  Could  one  be  more 
Jatedf 

Upon  this  point  we  are  able  to  quote  the  opinion  of  Dr. 
Crosby,  who  thus  charges  the  Westminster  Confession  with 
teaching  what  he  would  call  necessitated  volition  :  "In  order  tO' 
make  God  sovereign,  these  symbols  make  man  a  machine. 
They  in  terms  declare  man  a  free  agent,  but  in  their  statements 
respecting  God's  sovereignty  thej^  deny  this  declaration.  The 
will  to  which  God  appeals,  beseeching  it  to  turn  to  him,  they 
state,  is  powerless  to  turn,  unless  God  forces  it  to  turn,  thus 

destro3'ing  the  whole  meaning  of  the  appeal Now,  to  say 

that  God's  grace  acts  behind  man's  will  as  a  compelling  power, 
in  this  acceptance,  is  to  say  that  God  accepts  grace,  and  not 
man.  By  no  process  of  reasoning  can  man  be  made  a  free  agent 
in  the  matter,  and  the  true  declaration  of  the  Westminster  Con- 
fession (ch.  iii.,  sec.  i)  is  contradicted,  namely:  'Nor  is  violence 
offered  to  the  will  of  the  creatures.'  "  [Dr.  Crosby  means  that 
ch.  iii.,  sec.  r,  of  the  Westminster  Confession,  is  contradicted  by 
ch.  vii.,  sec.  3.] 

3.  lyimited  atonement.  For  wh}'^  should  provision  be  made 
for  the  salvation  of  those  whom  God  "  eternally  predestinated  to 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  1 25 

•death,"  as  Calvin  puts  it,  or  whom  he  "  passes  by,"  as  others 
more  mildly  say  the  same  thing  ? 

4.  The  salvation  of  only  some  infants  ("  elect  infants  ")  dying 
in  infancy.  If  any  human  being  predestinated  to  death  or  "  passed 
by  "  in  God's  merciful  provisions  dies  in  infancy,  such  a  one  is 
surely  not  saved.  But  how  can  any  one  know  or  assert  or  possi- 
bly believe  that  not  one  of  the  "passed  by"  has  died,  or  that 
one  such  never  will  die,  in  infancy?  Yet  that  is  the  sole  hypoth- 
esis on  which  an  advocate  of  unconditional  predestination  can 
admit  the  salvation  of  all  dying  in  infancy.  If  God's  elective 
decree  is  not  based  on  any  thing  foreseen  in  those  elected,  why 
should  we  suppose  all  dying  in  infancy  are  elect  ?  There  is  sim- 
ply no  place  in  the  Calvinistic  system  for  such  a  supposition. 
Dr.  Briggs  says  :  "  It  seems  plain  that  the  adjective  'elect'  limits 
*  infants,'  as  it  does  all  other  persons ;  and  that  the  Westminster 
Confession  teaches  that  there  are  some  elect  persons  among 
infants,"  etc.,  thus  frankly  admitting  that  the  Confession  of  his 
Church  does  not  teach  the  doctrine  of  the  salvation  of  all  dying 
in  infancy. 

5.  The  certain  final  perseverance  of  all  true  believers,  since  an 
eternal  decree  of  God  predestinates  them  to  life,  and  makes 
certain  all  the  means  necessary  thereto. 

6.  That  this  life  is  not  probationary. 

It  has  long  seemed  to  the  writer  that  denial  of  probation  to 
man  here  on  earth  is  one  of  the  most  obvious  logical  sequences 
of  the  Westminster  teaching.  If  an  eternal  decree  has  unchange- 
ably determined  that  A  is  of  the  elected,  and  B  is  of  "  the  rest 
of  mankind,"  who  have  been  "  passed  b}^"  can  it  be  said,  in  any 
proper  sense  of  the  term,  that  either  A  or  B  is  in  a  state  of  pro- 
bation ?  The  destiny  of  each  is  fixed ;  and  so  is  that  of  ever>' 
human  being,  according  to  the  Confession,  since  the  angels  and 
men  predestinated  and  ordained,  some  to  one  class,  some  to  the 
other,  are  "  particularly  and  unchangeably  designed,"  their 
number  being   "so   certain   and  definite    that    it    can   not  be 


126         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

increased  or  diminislied."  Beings  thus  "  predestinated,"  "  fore' 
ordained,"  and  "  particularly  and  unchangeably  designed  "  by  an 
eternal  decree  of  an  omnipotent  God,  are  no  more  proba- 
tioners, in  the  ordinary  acceptation  of  the  term,  than  were  Laz- 
arus and  Dives  when  seen  as  separated  by  an  impassable  gulf. 
If  God's  omnipotent  decree  assigning  men  and  angels  particu- 
larly and  unchangeably,  some  to  the  one  class,  some  to  the  other, 
does  not  utterly  preclude  and  exclude  the  predication  of  proba- 
tion of  these  men  and  angels,  then  one  idea  can  not  be  logically 
exclusive  of  another.  As  destructive  as  must  be  this  denial  of 
probation,  in  its  practical  bearing  on  men's  disposition  toward 
an  offered  gospel.  Dr.  Briggs  openly  accepts  it,  saying :  "  The 
doctrine  that  this  life  is  a  probation,  and  that  there  is  a  private 
judgment  at  death  are  inseparable.  Both  are  Arminian,  and 
neither  can  be  reco7iciled  with  Calvinistic  principles^ 

Dr.  Briggs  in  his  recent  work  ( Whither  f )  charges  the  Calvin- 
ists  of  to-day  with  going  beyond  the  Reformers,  and  certainly 
shows  that  in  some  doctrinal  aspects  they  do ;  while  Dr.  Crosby 
declares  that  the  Reformers  are  the  ones  who  were  at  fault  in 
pushing  their  "  logical  inferences  "  too  far.  The  seeming  contra- 
diction is,  doubtless,  to  be  explained  by  the  fact  that  in  the  days 
of  Calvin,  as  now,  those  who  held  to  predestination  and  cognate 
doctrines  differed  considerably  in  their  views.  The  consistent 
Calvinists,  as  seems  to  us  undeniable,  are  the  hyper-Calvinists. 
A  system  of  doctrine  of  any  kind  must  be  held  responsible  for 
its  "logical  inferences,"  and  that,  too,  when  pushed  to  "extreme 
views,"  provided  that  those  views  are  "  logical  inferences."  If 
we  accept  a  geometrical  proposition,  we  accept  all  its  logical  cor- 
ollaries, and  to  deny  any  of  them  would  be  to  stultify  ourselves. 
It  has  been  very  common,  indeed,  for  Cumberland  Presbyterians 
to  be  charged  with  the  unfairness  of  attributing  to  Calvinists 
doctrines  which  they  do  not  believe  nor  teach.  As  Cumberland 
Presbyterians  discard  Calvinism,  it  may  be  assumed  that  as  a 
matter  of  course  they  view  that  system  of  doctrine  in  all  its 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  1 27 

objectionable  features,  not  excepting  any  truly  logical  inference 
it  yields.  This  they  are  justly  entitled  to  do  so  long  as  they 
state  fairly  the  premises  of  the  system,  and  in  the  sense  put  into 
the  language  by  the  authors  of  those  premises.  The  writer  is 
desirous  at  this  point,  not  only  to  vindicate  his  own  Church,  but 
also  to  have  our  brethren  of  the  other  Church  understand  us. 
That  all  disputants  upon  our  side  have  been  always  fair,  is  what 
can  not  be  reasonably  presumed ;  that  as  a  rule  they  have  been 
or  at  least  meant  to  be  so,  our  personal  knowledge  of  these  dis- 
cussions does  not  permit  us  to  doubt. 

Calvinism  op  the  Reformers. 

As  an  illustration  of  how  the  Calvinistic  system  was  inter- 
preted in  the  days  of  the  Reformers,  we  subjoin  what  are  known 
as  The  Lambeth  Articles,  proposed  at  Lambeth,  England,  Novem- 
ber 10,  1595,  by  Archbishop  Whitgift,  and  adopted  by  the  divines 
from  Cambridge  along  with  others  assembled  for  the  purpose  of 
defining  the  system  : 

"i.  God  from  eternity  hath  predestinated  certain  men  unto 
life  ;  certain  men  he  hath  reprobated. 

"  2.  The  moving  or  efficient  cause  of  predestination  unto  life 
is  not  the  foresight  of  faith,  or  of  perseverance,  or  of  good 
works,  or  of  any  thing  that  is  in  the  person  predestinated,  but 
only  the  good  will  and  pleasure  of  God. 

"  3.  There  is  predetermined  a  certain  number  of  the  predesti- 
nate, which  can  be  neither  augmented  nor  diminished. 

"4.  Those  who  are  not  predestinated  to  salvation  shall  be  nec- 
essarily damned  for  their  sins. 

"  5.  A  true,  living  and  justifying  faith,  and  the  Spirit  of  God 
justifying,  is  not  extinguished,  falleth  not  away,  it  vanisheth  not 
away  in  the  elect,  either  totally  or  finally. 

"6.  A  man  truly  faithful — that  is,  such  a  one  who  is  truly 
endowed  with  a  justifying  faith — is  certain,  with  the  full  assur- 


128  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

ance  of  faith,  by  the  remission  of  his  sins,  of  his  everlasting  sal- 
vation by  Christ. 

"  7.  Saving  grace  is  not  given,  is  not  granted,  is  not  communi- 
cated to  all  men,  by  which  they  may  be  saved  if  they  will. 

"  8.  No  man  can  come  unto  Christ,  unless  it  be  given  unto 
him,  and  unless  the  Father  shall  draw  him  ;  and  all  men  are  not 
drawn  by  the  Father,  that  they  may  come  to -the  Son. 

"  9.  It  is  not  in  the  will  or  power  of  every  one  to  be  saved." 

These  Articles  were  not  indeed  authoritative,  and  are  cited 
only  in  proof  of  the  interpretation  of  Calvinism  in  the  early 
days  of  its  history.  They  were  so  displeasing  to  the  Queen  that 
she  commanded  the  Archbishop  speedily  to  recall  and  suppress 
them,  "  which  was  performed  with  such  care  and  diligence,"  says 
an  historian,  "  that  a  copy  of  them  was  not  to  be  found  for  a  long 
time  afterward."  Are  not  all  these  points  embraced,  in  phrase- 
ology somewhat  different,  in  the  Westminster  Confession  ? 

The  Church  of  England  is  largely  opposed  to  the  Calvinistic 
system,  some  of  the  strongest  protests  against  it  which  have  ever 
appeared  having  come  from  her  learned  divines.  Bishop  Sumner, 
commenting  on  the  express  and  comprehensive  command,  "  Go 
teach  all  nations,  baptizing  them  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and 
the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,"  observes  "  that  these  words  imply 
a  benefit  placed  within  the  power  of  the  whole  nation  generally, 
and  not  of  a  select  part  from  each  nation,  can  not  at  least  be 
denied  on  the  face  of  the  words  themselves,  which  convey  the 
impression  that  Christianity  was  to  be  gradually  diffused  and  the 
oflfer  of  the  gospel  made  without  reserve."  Speaking  of  the 
Calvinistic  tenet  of  man's  inability  to  do  any  thing  until  that  call 
is  received  which  must  always  be  effectual  {gratia  irresistabilis), 
Sumner  says :  "  No  one  can  be  blind  to  the  dangerous  tendency 
of  this  doctrine  ;  no  one,  I  should  imagine,  would  incur  the  haz- 
ard, except  from  an  overruling  sense  of  duty,  of  thus  promoting 
rashness,  supineness,  or  despair.  In  St.  Paul's  mode  of  address- 
ing the  churches,  in  several  passages  he  speaks  of  a  co-operation, 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  129 

or  at  least  an  exertion  on  man's  part,  which  is  incompatible  with 
his  being  a  mere  patient,  working  no  more  than  dead,  senseless 
matter  in  the  artificer's  hands,  ....  as  when  he  encourages  the 
Philippians  to  use  their  own  power  earnestly,  from  a  conscious- 
ness of  the  grace  by  which  they  would  be  supported,  '  Work  out 
your  own  salvation,  for  it  is  God  that  worketh  in  you.'  " 

Decrees  in  the  Thirty-nine  Articles. 

Article  xvii.  of  this  Symbol  of  the  Church  of  England  and  of 
the  Episcopalians  of  the  United  States,  "  Of  Predestination  and 
Election,"  reads  thus:  "  Predestination  to  life  is  the  everlasting 
purpose  of  God,  whereby  (before  the  foundations  of  the  world 
were  laid)  he  hath  constantly  decreed  by  his  counsel  secret  to  us, 
to  deliver  from  curse  and  damnation  those  whom  he  hath  chosen 
in  Christ  out  of  mankind,  and  to  bring  them  by  Christ  to  ever- 
lasting salvation,  as  vessels  made  to  honor.  Therefore,  they 
which  be  endued  with  such  an  excellent  benefit  of  God  be  called 
according  to  God's  purpose  by  his  Spirit  working  in  due  season  ; 
they  through  grace  obeying  the  calling;  they  be  justified  freely; 
they  be  made  sons  of  God  by  adoption ;  they  be  made  like  the 
image  of  his  only  begotten  Son,  Jesus  Christ ;  they  walk  relig- 
iously in  good  works,  and  at  length,  by  God's  mercy,  they  attain 
to  everlasting  felicity." 

There  is  no  allusion  in  the  foregoing,  and  none  in  the  remain- 
ing sections,  to  the  reprobation  of  any  portion  of  humanity,  nor 
to  their  being  passed  by.  Declaring  the  doctrine  (our  election 
in  Christ)  to  be  "  full  of  sweet,  pleasant,  and  unspeakable  com- 
fort to  godly  persons,"  the  Article  adds,  "  So,  for  curious  and 
carnal  persons,  lacking  the  spirit  of  Christ,  to  have  continually 
before  their  eyes  the  sentence  of  God's  predestination,  ....  is 
a  most  dangerous  downfall,  whereby  the  devil  doth  thrust  them 
either  into  desperation,  or  into  wretchedness  of  most  unclean 
living,  no  less  perilous  than  desperation." 

Bickersteth  {Questiojis  071  the  Thirty-nme  Articles)  says  that  the 
9 


130         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

words  "  to  life  "  are  inserted  "  to  exclude  the  doctrine  of  reproba- 
tion.'' In  further  explanation  of  the  doctrine  of  election  as  held 
by  that  Church,  he  adds  that  to  be  "  chosen  in  Christ"  means 
"  only  that  God  for  his  part  had  chosen  them  to  be  heirs  of  sal- 
vation, provided  they  on  their  part  would  '  put  on  the  breast- 
plate of  faith  and  love,'  and  so  make  their  calling  and  election 
sure." 

An  eminent  divine  of  the  Episcopal  Church  declares  that  "  by 
virtue  of  the  dispensation  of  grace,  under  which  human  nature 
is  now  placed,  no  man  is  reprobate  until  he  makes  himself  so 
by  deliberate  rejection  of  the  grace  of  God,  by  driving  from  his 
soul  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  source  of  all  the  good  that  is  in  man," 
and  that  *7/^^  actual  present  state  of  human  nature,  through  the 
mediation  of  Christ,  and  by  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  is  that 
of  probation,  not  of  reprobatioji.''' 

Every  human  being,  a  prisoner  of  hope,  raised  in  Christ  to  a 
gracious  probation,  called  of  God  to  lay  hold  on  eternal  life 
freely  and  sincerely  offered  to  all  by  the  all-merciful  Father  who 
willeth  not  the  death  of  any — such  is  the  gospel  we  preach. 
These  are  the  obvious,  comforting  gospel  truths,  pressed  upon 
the  judgment  and  consciences  of  men. 

"  We  should,"  says  Barrow,  "  adhere  to  those  plain  and  posi- 
tive declarations  whereby  God  representeth  himself  seriously 
designing  and  earnestly  desiring  that  all  men  should  come  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  truth;  that  none  should  perish,  but  that  all 
should  come  to  repentance,  not  doubting  but  that  his  declared 
mind  and  his  secret  providence,  although  we  can  not  thoroughly 
discern  or  explain  their  consistency,  do  yet  really  and  fully 
conspire." 

Decrees  in  the  Canons  op  Dort. 

As  another  illustration  of  the  "  extreme  views  "  discarded  and 
deprecated  by  Calvinists  of  the  Dr.  Crosby  school,  but  asserted 
by  more  consistent  Calvinists,  as  we  must  think  them,  to  be 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  131 

"logical  inferences"  of  admitted  Calvinistic  premises,  we  cite 
the  summary  of  the  Articles  of  the  -Synod  of  Dort,  as  it  is  given 
by  Tilenus,  and  so  far  as  it  relates  to  the  five  points  controverted 
between  Calvinists  and  Arminians.  This  summary  certainly 
shows  that  some  men  have  been  capable  of  a  rugged  faith 
indeed,  if  it  could  still  trust  and  worship  a  God  described  as  so 
decreeing  in  reference  to  his  creatures : 

"i.  That  God,  by  an  absolute  decree,  hath  elected  to  salvation 
a  very  small  number  of  men,  without  any  regard  to  their  faith 
or  obedience  whatsoever ;  and  secluded  from  saving  grace  all  the 
rest  of  mankind,  and  appointed  them,  by  the  same  decree,  to 
eternal  damnation,  without  any  regard  to  their  infidelity  or 
impenitency. 

"2.  That  Jesus  Christ  hath  not  suffered  death  for  any  other, 
but  for  those  elect  only ;  having  neither  had  any  intent  nor  com- 
mandment of  his  Father  to  make  satisfaction  for  the  sins  of  the 
whole  world. 

"  3.  That  by  Adam's  fall  his  posterity  lost  their  free  will,  being 
put  to  an  unavoidable  necessity  to  do,  or  not  do,  whatsoever  they 
do  or  do  not,  whether  it  be  good  or  evil,  being  thereunto  pre- 
destined  by  the  eternal  and  effectual  secret  decree  of  God. 

"  4.  That  God,  to  save  his  elect  from  the  corrupt  mass,  doth  be- 
get faith  in  them  by  a  power  equal  to  that  whereby  he  created 
the  world  and  raised  up  the  dead;  insomuch  that  such  unto 
whom  he  gives  that  grace  can  not  reject  it,  and  the  rest,  being 
reprobate,  can  not  accept  it. 

"  5.  That  such  as  have  once  received  that  grace  by  faith  can 
never  fall  from  it  finally  or  totally,  notwithstanding  the  most 
enormous  sins  they  can  commit." 

"  The  Canons  of  the  Synod  of  Dort  constitute,"  says  Professor 
Shedd  {History  of  Christiayi  Doctrine),  "a  highly  important 
portion  of  the  Calvinistic  symbolism."  These  Canons,  ninety- 
three  in  all,  "  combat  the  principal  tenets  of  the  Arminians,  and 
develop  the   Calvinistic  system,"  says   Shedd,  who  adds  that 


132  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  TliE 

the  Reformed  Cliurches  in  various  countries,  and  the  Puritans  in 
Kngland,  "  received  these  Canons  as  the  scientific  and  precise 
statement  of  Christianity."  The  English  Episcopal  Church 
rejected  these  Canons  of  Dort.  It  may  be  well  supposed,  indeed, 
that  the  circumstances  giving  rise  to  this  Calvinistic  symbol 
would  produce  a  radical  protest  against  Arminianism,  which  pro- 
test implies  the  greatest  extreme  possible  in  the  direction  of  Cal- 
vinism. Yet,  may  it  not  be  truthfully  said  that  these  harsh  ut- 
terances all  lie  within  the  logical  sequences  of  the  Calvinistic 
premises?  They  are  most  assuredly  but  Calvinism  "  developed 
into  precise  and  scientific  statement."  The  foregoing  summary 
may  employ  phraseology  not  justified  by  the  Canons,  but  the 
ideas  are  necessarily  in  anj'  true,  scientific  statement  of  Calvinism. 
Dr.  Reid,  the  metaphysician,  states  that  he  was  at  first  a  firm 
believer  in  Locke's  theory  of  ideas,  but  finding  that  conse- 
quences resulted  from  that  theorj^ "  which  gave  him  more  trouble 
than  the  supposition  of  the  non-existence  of  matter,"  he  began 
to  examine  into  the  foundation  principles  of  Locke's  philosophy, 
and  so  to  reject  the  hypothesis  altogether.  The  trouble  is  with 
the  fundamental  premise  of  Calvinism,  which  premise  adopted 
into  our  theological  system,  it  is  folly  to  deny  the  "  logical  infer- 
ences," or  to  attribute  injustice  and  ignorance  to  those  who  de- 
clare the  system  chargeable  with  its  logical  sequences.  Speaking 
of  the  evil  tendencies  of  the  Calvinistic  system,  Bishop  Sumner 
declares:  "It  matters  not  that  a  pious  Calvinist  disclaims  the 
natural  results,  or  an  acute  disputant  can  explain  them  away  :  it 
is  notorious  that  the  illiterate  enthusiast  believes,  and  the  sinner 
flatters  himself  with  expecting,  that,  if  he  is  one  of  the  elect,  he 
shall  somehow  or  other  be  finall)'  snatched  out  of  the  fire ;  and, 
if  he  is  not,  that  no  exertions  of  his  can  ever  avail.  Thus  the 
real  conclusion  and  the  practical  evil  of  the  doctrine  of  election 
meet  together."  "  I  do  not,"  he  adds,  "  consider  this  as  a  matter  of 
argument,  but  of  historical  experience."  He  refers  for  illustra- 
tion  to   the   passage   in   Burnet's   History  of  the  Reformation : 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  133 

"  The  Germans  soon  saw  the  ill  effects  of  the  doctrine  of  decrees, 
lytither  changed  his  mind  about  it,  and  Melanchthon  wrote 
openly  against  it ;  and  since  that  time  the  whole  stream  of  the 
Lutheran  Churches  has  run  the  other  way ;  but  both  Calvin  and 
Bucer  were  still  for  maintaining  the  doctrines,  only  they  warned 
the  people  not  to  think  much  about  them,  since  they  were  secrets 
that  men  could  not  penetrate  into.  Hooper  and  many  other 
good  writers  did  often  exhort  the  people  from  entering  into  these 
curiosities ;  and  a  caveat  to  the  same  purpose  was  put  into  the 
Article  about  predestination."  If  Calvinism,  then,  has  the  tend- 
ency here  ascribed  to  it,  how  must  we  think  of  it,  if  we  apply 
the  test  set  up  by  the  infallible  Teacher :  "A  good  tree  can  not 
bring  forth  evil  fruit?"  This  Calvinistic  tree  brings  forth  evil 
fruit;  therefore — what?  But  theorists  seem  adequate  to  almost 
any  task  in  the  way  of  denying  the  "  logical  inferences,"  or  of  rec- 
onciling the  pernicious  consequences  of  their  systems,  in  which 
art  heathen  philosophy  showed  no  less  skill  than  do  theologians 
of  some  schools,  as  may  be  illustrated  by  the  following  passages 
from  the  fatalistic  poet  Manillus : 

"  The  fates  rule  the  world;  arts  and  manners  are  alike  given 
to  created  beings,  and  vices,  and  misfortunes,  losses  and  gains  in 
their  affairs.  None  can  want  what  is  given  him,  nor  can  any 
have  what  is  denied.  Lo !  parents  destroy  their  children,  and 
children  their  parents,  and  armed  brethren  inflict  on  each  other 
mutual  wounds.  These  are  not  the  crimes  of  men;  the)'  are 
forced  to  such  actions,  and  to  incur  their  penalties  and  the  lacer- 
ation of  their  members."  To  this,  his  own  statement,  the  poet 
opposes  what  follows — a  "yet  not  so  as  thereby":  "Yet,  crimes 
derive  no  defense  from  this  statement,  nor  does  it  defraud  virtue 
of  its  reward.  .  .  .  So,  the  praise  of  human  merit  is  so  much  the 
greater  that  it  comes  from  the  will  of  Heaven,  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  we  hate  those  who  do  wTong,  the  more,  because  they  are 
created  for  crime  and  punishment."  Now,  we  must  say  of  this 
fatalistic  philosophy  (as  we  should  say  of  every  fatalistic  system 


134  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

of  theology,  which,  by  an  eternal  decree  or  any  other  agency, 
absolutely  and  unchangeably  determines  whatsoever  conies  to 
pass)  that  it  utterly  defies  all  honest  effort  at  distinction  between 
right  and  wrong  in  htiman  conduct,  and  leaves  not  the  semblance 
of  a  foundation  on  which  to  predicate  the  idea  of  moral  govern- 
ment over  rational  creatures.  Such  a  system,  though  Christian 
it  calls  itself,  claiming  to  vindicate  the  glory  of  God  by  making 
whatsoever  comes  to  pass  an  inevitable  issue  of  his  own  abso- 
lute, eternal  decree,  in  very  truth  robs  him  of  the  glorj'  springing 
from  the  obedience,  love,  and  adoration  of  a  vast  economy  of 
free  moral  agents,  created  in  his  own  image,  loving,  obeying,  and 
adoring  the  Creator  in  whom  they  perceive  all  moral  excellence. 
The  reader  is  again  reminded  that  these  paragraphs  are  not  an 
intended  discussion  of  what  Dr.  Crosby  calls  the  "  Evil  of  Cal- 
vinism," our  purpose  being  simply  to  emphasize  that  protest 
(against  the  Calvinistic  system)  with  which  the  Cumberland 
Presbyterian  Church  began  its  career,  to  which  it  has  uniformly 
stood  firm,  which  protest  it  should  continue  to  maintain  so  long 
as  the  cause  which  first  prompted  it  continues  to  exist.  Most 
of  all  have  Cumberland  Presbyterians  been  charged  with  mis- 
representation for  insisting  that  the  Westminster  Confession 
teaches  inferentially  the  (unpopular)  doctrine  of 

"Infant  Damnation." 

To  this  subject  Dr.  Briggs  (  Whither?)  devotes  over  a  dozen 
pages,  to  prove,  not  that  Cumberland  Presbyterians  make  a  false 
charge,  but  that  the  Confession  of  Faith  teaches  exactly  what 
Cumberland  Presbyterians  have  always  claimed  it  teaches,  and 
that  such  is,  as  he  shows  beyond  a  reasonable  doubt,  what  all  the 
framers  of  the  Confession  understood  it  to  teach,  and  meant  to 
have  it  teach.  Dr.  Briggs  also,  at  this  point,  charges  the  Presby- 
terian Church  with  forsaking  the  historic  meaning  of  their 
Standards,  adding;  "This  movement  seems  to  have  been  begun 
by  Dr.  Archibald  Alexander.     In  his  youth  he  was  greatly  influ- 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  135 

enced  by  the  Baptists  in  Virginia;  and  when  President  of 
Hampden  and  Sidney  College,  in  1797-99,  he  was  greatly 
troubled  about  infant  baptism,  and  for  a  while  discontinued  its 
use.  These  influences  led  him  to  abandon  the  Calvinistic  doc- 
trine of  the  damnation  of  non-elect  infants."  Dr.  Briggs  quotes 
Dr.  Prentiss  as  saying,  in  The  Presbyterian  Review,  that  "the 
change  from  the  position  generally  held  by  Calvinistic  divines 
at  the  beginning,  or  in  the  middle  of  the  Seventeenth  Century, 
to  the  ground  taken  by  Dr.  Charles  Hodge,  in  1 871,  in  his  Sys- 
tematic Theology,  is  simply  immense;"  that  it  "amounts  to  a 
sort  of  revolution."  "  It  is,  however,  contrary  to  the  Westmin-  ^. 
ster  Confession  of  Faith,''  says  Dr.  Briggs,  "  to  believe  in  the  sal- 
vatio7i  of  all  infants,  or  to  believe  in  the  salvation  of  any  of  the 
heathen  who  are  capable  of  being  outwardly  called  by  the  min- 
istry of  the  word."  Again :  "  We  are  able  to  say  that  the  West- 
minster divines  were  unanimous  on  this  question  of  the  salva- 
tion of  elect  infants  only.  We  have  examined  the  greater  part 
of  the  writings  of  the  Westminster  divines,  and  have  not  been 
able  to  find  any  different  opinion  from  the  extracts  v/e  have 
given.  The  Presbyterian  Churches  have  departed  from  their 
Standards  on  this  question,  and  it  is  simple  honesty  to  acknowl- 
edge it.  We  are  at  liberty  to  amend  the  Confession,  but  we 
have  no  right  to  distort  it,  and  to  pervert  its  meaning."  It  is 
due  to  Dr.  Briggs  to  say  that  he  courageously  and  avowedly  dis- 
cards his  own  Confession,  saying:  "We  do  not  hesitate  to  ex- 
press our  dissent  from  the  Westminster  Confession  in  this 
limitation  of  the  divine  electing  grace.  We  are  of  opinion  that 
God's  electing  grace  saves  all  infants,  and  not  a  few  of  the 
heathen."  Now  that  their  interpretation  of  the  Westminster 
Confession  touching  the  doctrine  of  infant  salvation  is  fully 
sanctioned  by  so  eminent  a  scholar  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
as  Dr.  Briggs,  Cumberland  Presbyterians  may  feel  reassured  in 
regard  to  the  justice  of  their  interpretation  of  that  article  in 
the  Confession,  and  equally   in  regard  to  their  protest  to  the 


136         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

article  as  thus  interpreted,  since  not  only  Dr.  Briggs  is  fully  with 
us  in  interpreting  and  rejecting  the  "elect  infants"  article,  but 
also  that,  as  asserted  by  Dr.  Prentiss,  there  has  been  a  "revolu- 
tion in  theological  opinion  "  along  the  very  line  of  our  departure 
from  the  Westminster  .symbols.  Let  us,  then,  in  conclusion, 
state  more  definitely  and  authoritatively  the 

Cumberland  Presbyterian  Doctrine  of  Decrees. 

By  the  end  of  three  and  a  half  years,  the  first  organized  Cum- 
berland Presbyterian  presbytery  had  grown  to  a  synod,  composed 
of  three  presbyteries.  The  "brief  view"  of  doctrines  and  disci- 
pline approved  at  the  first  meeting  of  this  synod  is,  so  far  as 
known  to  us,  the  first  doctrinal  statement  put  forth  by  the  Cum- 
berland Presbyterian  Church.  "As  regards  the  doctrine  of  pre- 
destination and  election,  our  fathers  declared  in  the  'brief  view' 
that  they  were  pleased  neither  with  the  application  that  rigid 
Calvinists  nor  Arminians  make  of  it.  They  thought  that  the 
truth  of  this,  as  well  as  of  many  other  points  of  divinity,  lies 
between  the  opposite  extremes."  '^  The  "  view  "  embraced  these 
declarations  as  points  of  dissent  from  the  Westminster  Confes- 
sion: 

First — That  there  are  no  eternal  reprobates. 

Second— Th3X  Christ  died,  not  for  part  only,  but  for  all  man- 
kind. 

Third— That  all  infants  dying  in  infancy  are  saved  through 
Christ  and  sanctification  of  the  Spirit. 

Fourth— "VhoX.  the  Spirit  of  God  operates  on  the  world,  or  as 
co-extensively  as  Christ  has  made  the  atonement,  in  such  a  man- 
ner as  to  leave  all  men  inexcusable. 

These  propositions  are  expressed  in  language  that  scarcely 
admits  of  being  misunderstood.  They  embody  doctrines  funda- 
mental, as  to  the  relation  of  the  gospel  to  the  world,  and  vastly 

*  Origin  and  Doctrines  of  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church,  by  E. 
B.  Crisman,  D.D. 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  137 

significant  as  determining  factors  in  a  theological  s}7steni.  These 
views,  held  in  common,  as  it  seems,  by  the  members  of  the 
newly  formed  synod,  had  doubtless  been  frequently  presented, 
defended,  and  enforced  in  the  preaching  so  signally  blessed  in 
the  years  immediately  preceding,  so  that  they  had  come  to  be 
the  well-understood  views  of  the  Cumberland  Presbyterians. 
They  are  the  Creed  that  antedates  a  Confession.  In  addition  to 
the  issue  of  this  doctrinal  statement,  the  synod  appointed  a  com- 
mittee "to  prepare  a  Confession  of  Faith,  Discipline,  and  Cate- 
chism, in  accordance  with  the  avowed  principles  of  the  Church." 
This  committee  "  merely  modified  the  Westminster  Confession 
of  Faith,  expunging  what  they  believed  unscriptural,  and  sup- 
plying what  they  thought  scriptural."*  The  committee's  re- 
port, submitted  to  the  synod  at  its  next  annual  meeting,  was 
approved  and  adopted  as  the  Confession  of  Faith  of  the  Church. 
It  is  not  likely  that  this  first  revision  of  the  Westminster  Con- 
fession eliminated  all  the  logical  sequences  of  the  rejected  Cal- 
vinistic  premises.  With  some  amendments,  the  report  of  the 
committee  was  unanimously  adopted — a  fact  quite  significant  of 
a  well-understood  rejection  of  the  Calvinistic  doctrine  of  decrees. 
The  first  General  Assembly  of  the  Church,  held  at  Princeton, 
Ky.,  1829,  still  further  revised  the  revision  adopted  by  the  synod 
in  1814,  and  pubHshed  it  as  "The  Confession  of  Faith  of  the 
Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church,"  in  which  occurs  the  follow- 
ing statement  of  (Chapter  III.)  "The  Decrees  of  God:" 

"  I.  God  did,  by  the  most  wise  and  holy  counsel  of  his  own 
will,  determine  to  act  or  bring  to  pass  what  should  be  for  his 
own  glory. 

"  II.  God  has  not  decreed  any  thing  respecting  his  creature 
man,  contrary  to  his  revealed  will,  or  written  word,  which 
declares  his  sovereignty  over  all  his  creatures,  the  ample  provis- 
ion he  has  made  for  their  salvation,  his  determination  to  punish 

*  Origin  and  Doctrines  of  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church,  by  E. 
B.  Crisman,  D.D. 


138  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

the  finally  impenitent  with  everlasting  destruction,  and  to  save 
the  true  believer  with  an  everlasting  salvation." 

How  Our  Fathers  Viewed  the  Subject. 

To  the  foregoing  chapter  on  Decrees  is  appended,  partly,  no 
doubt,  as  explanatory  of  the  brevity  of  the  chapter,  a  lengthy 
note,  of  such  value  for  clearness  and  doctrinal  soundness,  as  to 
deserve  preservation,  especially  as  evidence  of  the  views  of  our 
fathers  on  the  subject  under  consideration.  This  note,  with 
unessential  parts  omitted,  we  here  insert : 

"  We  think  it  better,  under  the  head  of  Decrees,  to  write  what 
we  know  to  be  incontrovertible  from  the  plain  word  of  God, 
than  to  darken  counsel  by  words  without  knowledge.  We  are, 
therefore,  free  to  acknowledge  that  in  our  judgment  it  is  easier 
to  fix  the  limits  which  man  should  not  transcend,  on  either 
hand,  than  to  give  an  intelligent  elucidation  of  the  subject.  We 
believe  that  both  the  Calvinists  and  Arminians  have  egregiously 
erred  on  this  point ;  the  former  by  driving  rational,  accountable 
man  into  the  asylum  of  fate ;  the  latter  by  putting  too  much 
stress  on  man's  works,  and  leaving  too  much  out  of  view  the 
^race  that  bringeth  salvation,  and  thereby  cherishing  those  legal 
principles  that  are  in  every  human  heart.  We  think  the  inter^ 
mediate  plan,  on  this  subject,  is  nearest  the  whole  truth.  For 
surely,  on  the  one  hand,  it  must  be  acknowledged,  the  love  of 
God,  the  merits  of  Christ,  and  the  operations  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
are  the  moving,  meritorious,  and  active  causes  of  m.an's  salva- 
tion ;  that  God  is  a  sovereign,  having  a  right  to  work  when, 
where,  how,  and  on  whom  he  pleases ;  that  salvation,  in  its 
device,  in  its  plan,  and  in  its  application,  is  of  the  Lord  ;  and 
that  without  the  unmerited  agency  and  operation  of  the  Spirit  of 
God,  not  one  of  Adam's  race  would  or  could  ever  come  to  the 

knowledge  of  the  truth But  as  it  respects  the  salvation 

of  the  soul,  God  as  a  sovereign  can  only  elect,  or  choose,  fallen 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  139 

man  in  Christ,  who  is  the  end  of  the  law  for  righteousness  to 
every  one  that  believeth.  But  it  appears  to  us  incontestible  from 
God's  word  that  God  has  reprobated  7ione  from  eternity.  That 
all  men  become  legally  reprobated  b}^  transgression  is  undeni- 
able, and  so  continue  until  they  embrace  Christ Reproba- 
tion is  not  what  some  suppose  it  to  be,  viz. :  a  sovereign  deter- 
mination of  God  to  create  millions  of  rational  beings,  and,  for 
his  own  glory,  damn  them  eternally  in  hell,  without  regard  to 
moral  rectitude  or  sin  in  the  creature.  This  would  tarnish  the 
divine  glory,  and  render  the  greatest,  best,  and  most  lovely  of 
all  beings  most  odious  in  the  view  of  all  intelligences.  When 
man  sinned,  he  was  legally  reprobated,  but  not  damned.  God 
offered  and  does  offer  the  law-condemned  sinner  mercy  in  the 
gospel;  he  having  from  the  foundation  of  the  world  so  far 
chosen  mankind  in  Christ,  as  to  justify  that  saying  in  i  Tim,  iv. 
10,  '  Who  is  the  Savior  of  all  men,  especially  of  them  that 
laelieve.'  ....  For  God  declares  in  his  word  that  Christ  died  for 
the  whole  world ;  that  he  offers  pardon  to  all ;  that  the  Spirit 
operates  on  all,  confirming  by  an  oath  that  he  has  no  pleasure  in 
the  death  of  sinners.  Every  invitation  of  the  gospel  either 
promises  or  implies  aid  b)^  the  divine  Spirit.  The  plan  of  the 
Bible  is  grace  and  dut}*:  God  calls  (grace),  sinners  hearken  dili- 
gently (dut}') ;  God  reproves,  sinners  turn ;  God  pours  out  his 
Spirit,  sinners  resist  not  the  light,  but  improve  it ;  God  invites, 
Wicked  man,  forsake  j^our  ways,  your  thoughts,  and  turn  to  the 
lyord  (duty),  and  God  will  have  mercy  on  you  (grace),  and  God 
will  abundantly  pardon  (grace)." 

Without  further  comment  thereon,  we  may  be  allowed  to  say 
that  the  foregoing  seems  to  us  to  represent  man's  relation  to  the 
offers  of  the  gospel,  according  to  the  obvious  meaning  of  the 
Scriptures,  and  that  it  is  conformable  to  the  experience  of  those 
who  have  believed  on  Christ,  and  attained  to  a  comfortable 
assurance  of  salvation. 


140 


DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

The  Confessions  Compared. 


As  revised  and  adopted  in  1883,  the  Confession  of  Faith  sets 
forth  the  doctrine  of  decrees,  as  held  by  Cumberland  Presbyte- 
rians, in  the  following  short  paragraphs,  which  are  here  brought 
into  juxtaposition  with  sections  from  the  Westminster  chapter 
relating  to  the  same  subject,  the  more  clearly  and  efficiently  to 
illustrate  the  material  and  radical  departure  of  our  theology  from 
what  is  taught  in  the  old  symbols : 


Westminster  Confession. 

Of  Decrees. 

Chap.  3.  God  from  all  eternity 
by  the  most  wise  and  holy  counsel 
of  his  own  will  freely  and  unchange- 
ablj-  ordained  whatsoever  comes  to 
pass ;  yet  so  as  thereby  neither  is 
God  the  author  of  sin,  nor  is  vio- 
lence offered  to  the  will  of  the  creat- 
ure, nor  is  the  liberty  or  contin- 
gency of  second  causes  taken  away, 
but  rather  established. — Sec.  i. 

Although  God  foreknows  whatso- 
ever may  or  can  come  to  pass  iipon 
all  supposed  conditions ;  }'et  hath 
he  not  decreed  any  thing  because 
he  foresaw  it  as  future,  or  as  that 
•which  would  come  to  pass  upon 
such  conditions. — Sec.  2. 


By  the  decree  of  God,  for  the 
manifestation  of  his  glory,  some 
men  and  angels  are  predestinated 
unto  everlasting  life,  and  others 
foreordained  to  everlasting  death. — 
Sec.  3. 

The  angels  and  men,  thus  predes- 
tinated and  foreordained,  are  partic- 
ularly and  unchangeably  designed; 
and  their  number  is  so  certain  and. 
definite  that  it  can  not  be  either  in- 
creased or  diminished. — Sec.  4. 

The  rest  of  mankind  God  was 
pleased,  according  to  the  unsearch- 
able counsel  of  his  own  will,  where- 


cumberland  presbyterian 
Confession. 

Of  Decrees. 

Chap.  3." — God,  for  the  manifesta- 
tion of  his  glory  and  goodness,  by 
the  most  wise  and  holy  counsel  of 
his  own  will,  freely  and  unchange- 
ablj-  ordained  or  determined  what 
he  himself  would  do,  what  he  would 
require  his  intelligent  creatures  to 
do,  and  what  should  be  the  awards, 
respectively,  of  the  obedient  and 
the  disobedient. — Sec.  i. 


[The  decrees 
pose,  whereby, 
counsel  of  his 
foreordained  w 
own  glory ;  sin 
glory,  therefore 
it. — Answer  to 
Catechism^ 


of  God  are  his  pur- 
,    according    to    the 

own  will,  he  hath 
hat  shall  be  for  his 
not  being  for  God's 
he  hath  not  decreed 

Question   7   of  the 


[God  executes  his  decrees  in  the 
works  of  creation,  providence,  and 
grace. — Answer  to  Question  8  of  the- 
Catechism^ 


CUMBERIvAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  141 

"by  he  extendeth  or  withholdeth 
mercy  as  he  pleaseth,  for  the  glory 
•of  his  sovereign  power  over  his 
creatures,  to  pass  by  and  to  ordain 
them  to  dishonor  and  wrath  for 
their  sin,  to  the  praise  of  his  glori- 
ous justice. — Sec.  7. 

The   doctrine  of  this  high  mys-  Though    all   divine  decrees   may 

tery  of  predestination  is  to  be  han-       not  be  revealed  to   men,  yet  it   is 
died  with  special  prudence  and  care,       certain  that  God  has  decreed  noth- 
that  men  attending  the  will  of  God       ing  contrary  to  his  revealed  will  or 
revealed  in   his  word,  and  yielding       written  word. — Sec.  2. 
obedience  thereunto,  may,  from  the 
certainty  of  their  effectual  vocation, 
be  assured  of  their  eternal  election. 
— Sec.  8  in  part. 

The  doctrine  of  decrees  as  set  fortli  in  the  Cumberland  Pres- 
byterian Confession  seems  easily  understood,  and  to  embrace 
onl}^  what  is  conformable  to  enlightened  judgment  and  to  the 
obvious  meaning  of  the  Scriptures  as  a  whole,  {a)  God's  decrees 
are  in  accordance  with  the  most  wise  and  holy  counsel  of  his 
own  will,  {b)  They  are  put  forth  freel}' — attended  by  what  we 
mean  by  volition  absoltitely  uncoerced,  {c)  Thej"  are  unchange- 
able, for  an  infinitely  wise  being  could  have  no  reason  for  chang- 
ing his  purpose,  {d)  They  are  conditioned  on  the  manifestation 
of  his  gloT}'  and  goodness.  They  must,  therefore,  embrace  the 
actual  or  prospective  existence  of  creatures  rational  and  sentient 
to  whom  his  glory  and  goodness  would  be  thus  manifested.  It 
is  a  matter  of  fact  that  in  the  works  of  God  men  do  behold  man- 
ifestations of  his  glory  and  goodness.  John  declares,  "  God  is 
love."  Plato  says,  "  God  is  beauty  and  love."  What  the  philos- 
opher beheld  in  nature  was  to  the  evangelist  more  fully  man- 
ifested by  the  grace  of  God  which  bringeth  salvation. 

The  Scope  of  the  Decrees. 

The  scope  of  the  decrees  of  God  embraces : 

I.  "What  God  himself  would  do;"  as,  to  create  heaven  and 
earth,  and  all  creatures  therein ;  to  reveal  to  man  a  perfect  rule 
of  behavior,  the  law  of  love;  to  redeem  man  fallen,  etc. 


142  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

2.  "What  he  would  require  his  intelligent  creatures  to  do.'* 
Though  a  slight  ambiguity  lurks,  unfortunately,  in  these  words, 
we  do  not  doubt  that  their  designed  meaning  is  that  God's  de- 
crees embrace  what  he  desires  his  rational  creatures,  as  moral 
agents,  to  do  in  the  exercise  of  the  freedom  wherewith  he  has 
endowed  them.  It  will  include  (a)  man's  behavior  under  law ; 
as,  to  reverence  his  Maker,  the  observance  of  veracit}^,  honesty, 
etc. ;  (d)  specific  assignments  to  men ;  as,  Moses  to  lead  Israel 
out  of  Egypt,  Jonah  to  preach  to  the  Ninevites,  etc. 

3.  How  he  will  deal  with  the  obedient,  and  how  with  the  dis- 
obedient. 

The  third  specification,  relating  to  the  awards  God  has  decreed 
to  assign  respectively  to  the  obedient  and  the  disobedient,  asserts 
what  is  explained  and  declared  throughout  the  Scriptures,  that 
the  final  apportionments  to  men  will  be  according  to  their  behav- 
ior as  subjects  of  moral  law,  and  toward  the  gospel  offer  of 
mercy,  and  not  in  accordance  with  an  eternal,  unconditional 
decree,  irrespective  of  man's  behavior. 

4.  That  God  has  decreed  nothing  contrary  to  his  revealed  will,. 
or  written  word. 

That  we  do  7iof  "  know  all  the  decrees  of  God,"  we  must  most 
certainly  suppose,  since  man  can  be  regarded  as  only  a  small 
fraction  of  a  vast  economy  of  rational  creatures,  and  his  dwell- 
ing-place but  an  insignificant  orb  in  the  universe  of  whirling 
spheres;  but  still  we  may  suppose,  and  must  suppose,  that  the 
God  revealed  to  us  in  the  Scriptures  decrees  nothing  contrary  to 
what  he  declares  to  be  his  will.  There  is  in  this  view  of  decrees 
no  necessity  for  reconciling  God's  "secret  purpose"  with  his 
revealed  will.  God  is  truth.  With  him  is  no  variableness  nor 
shadow  of  turning.  Infinite  wisdom  and  infinite  power  are  alike 
attributes  of  God.  We  can  comprehend  neither,  but  they  need 
no  reconciling.  God  foreknows  all  things,  and  man  acts  freely. 
The  two  statements  need  no  reconciling,  for  they  involve  no 
antagonism  of  thought. 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  143 

The  decrees  of  God,  as  taught  by  Cumberland  Presbyterians, 
mean  but  the  divine  purpose  to  do  and  permit  that  which  infinite 
wisdom  sees  to  be  for  the  highest  well-being  of  all  sentient 
creatures.  All  the  decrees  of  God  made  known  to  us  are  in  per- 
fect harmony  with  goodness  and  mercy,  and  such  as  to  posit  a 
rational  basis  for  divine  sovereignty,  human  agency,  moral  gov- 
ernment, a  gracious  offer  of  salvation  to  all  men,  and  a  just  final 
reward  for  the  obedient  and  final  punishment  of  the  disobedient. 

The  Scriptures  Versus  Unconditional,  Predestination. 

Of  the  numerous  plain  passages  of  Scripture  which,  taken  in 
their  obvious  import,  underlie,  as  a  granite  foundation,  this  rea- 
sonable view  of  the  decrees,  but  to  which  the  Calvinistic  decree 
is  utterly  unconformable,  we  may  instance  that  wonderful 
epitome  of  the  gospel  found  in  i  Timothy  ii.  1-6:  "I  exhort, 
therefore,  that,  first  of  all,  supplications,  prayers,  intercessions, 
and  thanksgivings  be  made  for  all  men  ;  for  kings  and  all  that 
are  in  authority,  that  we  may  lead  a  quiet  and  peaceable  life  in 
all  godliness  and  gravity.  For  this  is  good  and  acceptable  in 
the  sight  of  God  our  Savior,  who  wills  that  all  men  should  be 
saved,  and  should  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth.  For 
(over  all)  there  is  but  one  God,  and  one  mediator  between  God 
and  men,  the  man  Christ  Jesus,  who  gave  himself  a  ransom  for 
all  7nen,  to  be  testified  in  due  time."  The  translation  by  Cony- 
beare  and  Howson  is  given,  as  more  nearly  expressing  the  sense 
of  the  relative  clause,  "  who  will  have  all  men  to  be  saved,"  still 
more  literally,  who  wills  (dihc)  all  men  to  be  saved.  Now,  if 
an  inspired  apostle  exhorts  that  prayer  be  made  for  all  men,  and 
on  the  ground  that  God  wills  that  all  men  be  saved,  and  that  the 
one  Mediator  between  God  and  men  gave  himself  a  ransom  for 
all,  how  can  it  be  believed  that "  God  so  ordains,"  as  Calvin  says, 
"  by  his  counsel  and  his  will,  that  some  among  men  should  be 
born  devoted  to  certain  death  from  the  womb,  to  glorify  his 
name  by  their  destruction  ;  "  or  that,  as  the  Westminster  Confes- 


144  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

sion  puts  it,  "  God  was  pleased,  according  to  the  unsearchable 
counsel  of  his  own  will,  for  the  glory  of  his  sovereign  power 
over  his  own  creatures,  to  pass  by"  these  "  some  among  np.en," 
and,  by  a  decree  unconditional,  without  reference  to  any  thing 
foreseen  in  these  "some  among  men,"  "to  ordain  them  to  dis- 
honor and  wrath?"  If  any  one  claims  that  he  believes  Paul, 
who  declares  that  God  wills  the  salvation  of  all  men,  and  that  he 
can,  at  the  same  time,  believe  Calvin  and  the  Westminster  Con- 
fession, he  has  prodigious  capacity  for  believing ;  and  he  who 
claims  to  be  able  to  reconcile  the  teaching  of  Calvin  and  the 
Confession  with  that  of  Paul  in  the  passage  cited,  certainly 
claims  the  ability  to  reconcile  logical  contradictions;  and  the 
God  pictured  by  the  imagination  of  such  a  one  must  be,  saying 
it  reverently,  a  singular  kind  of  a  God  for  a  rational  creature  to 
worship  !  The  note  of  Dr.  Van  Oosterzee  (in  Lunge's  Commen- 
tary) on  the  passage  under  consideration,  is  so  excellent  that  we 
subjoin  it  in  full:  "Paul  teaches,  not  only  here,  but  in  other 
places  (Rom.  viii.  52;  xi.  32;  Titus  ii.  11),  that  the  desire  of 
God  to  bless  all  sinners  is  unlimited,  3'et  it  can  be  only  in  the 
ordained  way  of  faith.  And  here,  perhaps,  he  affirms  it,  in  order 
to  maintain  this  doctrine  plainl)^  against  every  Gnostic  limita- 
tion of  salvation,  as  well  as  to  give  a  fit  motive  for  prayer.  For 
had  God  willed  the  contrary  of  what  is  here  revealed,  it  wonld 
be  foolish  ayid  fruitless  to  pray  for  the  zvelfare  of  others,  whe7i 
perhaps  this  or  that  person  might  be  shut  out  fro^n  the  plan  of 
salvatio?i.  Yet  more,  the  apostle  speaks  here  of  the  dsXecv  of 
God  in  general,  not  of  the  ^ooXr^ixa,  which  regards  believers 
(Eph.  i.  11).  It  is,  therefore,  entirely  needless,  by  any  exeget- 
ical  gloss,  to  limit  the  expression,  all  men,  or  to  understand  it  in 
the  sense  of  all  classes  of  men  (which  would  make  verse  i  an 
absurdit}^)." 

This  plain  and  exceedingly  precious  passage,  and  a  few  others 
of  similar  import,  may  appropriately  be  placed  in  juxtaposition 
with  an  equal  number  of  Calvinistic  predestinarian  utterances, 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH. 


145 


to  illustrate  how  thoroughly  discordant  the  language  of  these 
utterances  is  to  that  of  the  Scriptures,  and  how  utterly  irrecon- 
cilable is  the  Calvinistic  decree  of  predestination  with  the  gra- 
cious message  of  the  gospel.  On  the  one  side  we  shall  have  the 
idea  of  the  absolute  and  dreadful  sovereignt}^  of  God  electing 
some  of  our  race,  without  any  thing  foreseen  in  these  as  moving 
him  thereto,  to  be  heirs  of  the  joys  of  salvation,  and  passing  by 
the  remainder  of  the  same  lump  of  fallen  humanity,  and  ap- 
pointing them  heirs  of  inevitable  wrath  and  destruction ;  but  on 
the  other  side,  the  impartial  compassion  of  a  common  heavenly 
Father  who  loved  the  world,  the  infinite  compassion  of  the  one 
Mediator  who  tasted  death  for  all,  and  the  universal  invitation 
to  that  merciful  provision  the  grace  of  God  sets  before  all. 


The  Words  of  the  IvOrd. 

"I  exhort,  therefore,  first  of  all, 
that  supplications,  prayers,  inter- 
cessions, thanksgivings,  be  made 
for  all  men ;  for  kings  and  all  that 
are  in  high  place ;  that  we  may  lead 
a  tranquil  and  quiet  life  in  all  god- 
liness and  gravitj'.  This  is  good 
and  acceptable  in  the  sight  of  God 
our  Savior ;  who  willeth  that  all 
men  should  be  saved,  and  come 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth.  For 
there  is  one  God,  one  Mediator  also 
between  God  and  men,  himself 
man,  Christ  Jesus,  who  gave  him- 
self a  ransom  for  all." 

"As  I  live,  saith  the  Lord,  I  have 
no  pleasure  in  the  death  of  the 
wicked,  but  that  the  wicked  turn 
from  his  way  and  live." — Ezek. 
xxxiii.  II. 

"And  ye  have  not  his  word  abid- 
ing in  you  ;  for  whom  he  sent,  him 
5'e  believe  not;  ....  and  ye  will 
not  come  to  me  that  ye  may  have 
life."— John  v.  38. 


"  For  God  so  loved  the  world,  that 
he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that 
whosoever  believeth  on  him  should 
not  perish,  but  have  eternal  life." — 
John  iii.  16. 

10 


The  Words  of  Men. 

"  Predestination  we  call  the  eter- 
nal decree  of  God,  by  which  he  has 
determined  in  himself  what  he 
would  have  to  become  of  every  in- 
dividual of  mankind ;  for  they  are 
not  all  created  with  similar  destiny ; 
but  eternal  life  is  foreordained  for 
some,  and  eternal  damnation  for 
others.  Everyman,  therefore,  being 
created  for  the  one  or  the  other  of 
these  ends,  we  say  he  is  predesti- 
nated either  to  life  or  to  death." — 
Calvin. 


"  Since  the  will  of  God  is  said  to 
be  the  cause  of  all  things,  that  his 
providence  is  appointed  to  be  the 
ruler  in  all  the  counsels  and  works 
of  men  ;  so  that  it  not  only  exerts  its 
power  in  the  elect,  who  are  gov- 
erned by  the  Holy  Spirit,  but  also 
compels  the  compliance  of  the  rep- 
robate''' (compels  their  wicked 
course — their  rejection  of  Christ). 
— Calvin. 

"The  rest  of  mankind  (the  non- 
elect)  God  was  pleased,  according 
to  the  unsearchable  counsel  of  his 
own  will,  whereby  he  extendeth  or 
withholdeth  mercy  as  he  pleaseth, 


146 


DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 


for  the  glory  of  his  sovereign 
power  over  his  creatures,  to  pass  by 
and  to  ordain  them  to  dishonor  and 
wrath  for  their  sin." — ]Vestviinster 
Confession. 


"  How  often  would  I  have  gath- 
ered thy  children  together,  as  a  hen 
doth  gather  her  brood  under  her 
wings,  and  ye  would  not." — Luke 
xiii.  34. 

"  It  was  necessary  that  the  word 
of  God  should  first  have  been 
spoken  to  5'ou ;  but  seeing  ye  put  it 
from  3-ou,  and  judge  yourselves 
unworthy  of  everlasting  life,  lo,  we 
turn  to  the  Gentiles." — Acts  xiii.  46. 


"  I  will  not  scruple  to  own  that 
the  will  of  God  lays  a  necessitj'  on 
all  things." 

"  Every  action  and  motion  of 
every  creature  is  governed  by  the 
hidden  counsel  of  God." — Calvin. 


"The  Lord.  .  .  .  is  long-suffering 
to  usward,  not  willing  (not  desiring 
• — A'czu  Version)  that  any  should 
perish,  but  that  all  should  come  to 
repentance." — 2  Peter  iii.  9. 

"  Let  no  man  say  when  he  is 
tempted,  I  am  tempted  of  God;  for 
God  can  not  be  tempted  with  evil, 
and  he  himself  tempt eth  no  man  ; 
but  each  man  is  tempted  when  he  is 
drawn  away  by  his  own  lust  and  en- 
ticed."— James  i.  13,  14. 


"  God  calls  to  the  reprobates,  that 
they  may  be  more  deaf;  kindles  a 
light,  that  they  may  be  more  blind; 
brings  his  doctrine  to  them,  that 
they  may  be  more  ignorant ;  and 
applies  the  remedy  to  them  that 
they  may  not  be  healed." — Calvin. 


"  Because  I  have  called,  and  ye 
refused  ;  I  have  stretched  my  hand, 
and  no  man  regarded  it ;  .  .  .  .  for 
that  thev  hated  knowledge,  and  did 
not  choose  the  fear  of  the  Lord.  .  . 
.  .  Therefore  shall  they  eat  of  the 
fruit  of  their  own  way,  and  be 
filled  with  their  own  devices.''' — 
Prov.  i.  29-31.  [Chalmers  makes 
their  ways  and  their  devices  the 
ways  and  devices  of  God.] 


"Every  step  of  every  individual 
character  receives  as  determinate  a 
character  from  the  hand  of  God,  as 
every  mile  of  a  planet's    orbit,  or 

every  wave  of  the  sea This 

power  of  God  knows  no  excep- 
tions ;  it  is  absolute  and  unlimited. 
It  reigns  and  operates  through  all 
the  secrecies  of  the  inner  man.  It 
gives  birth  to  every  purpose,  it 
gives  impulse  to  every  desire,  it 
gives  shape  and  color  to  every  con- 
ception. It  wields  an  entire  ascend- 
ency over  every  attribute  of  the 
mind ;  and  the  will,  and  the  fancy, 
and  the  understanding,  with  all  the 
countless  variety  of  their  hidden 
and  fugitive  operations,  are  sub- 
mitted to  it," — Dr.  Thomas  Chal- 
mers 


cumberland  presbyterian  church.  147 

Current  Discussion  of  the  Subject. 

We  have  dwelt  upon  this  subject  because  it  involves  what  is 
fundamental  in  the  distinction  between  Calvinistic  theology  and 
Cumberland  Presbj^terian  theology.  The  complete  rejection  of 
the  Westminster  doctrine  of  eternal  unconditional  predestina- 
tion and  its  logical  sequences  is  the  distinguishing  characteristic 
of  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church,  as  a  member  of  the 
Presbyterian  family.  It  is  also  true,  as  before  observed,  that  the 
doctrine  that  "  God  has  decreed  whatsoever  comes  to  pass," 
which  of  necessity  involves  unconditional  election,  and  its  cor- 
relative, unconditional  reprobation,  identifies,  shapes,  and  com- 
pletel}'  dominates  the  Calvinistic  system.  We  can  no  more  have 
Calvinism,  if  the  eternal,  universal  unconditional  decree  is 
omitted,  than  we  can  have  a  vertebrate  without  a  spinal  column. 
In  Calvinism  there  is  no  high  and  low,  hard  and  soft,  extreme  - 
and  moderate.  Calvin  himself  derided  as  silly  all  those  who 
held  to  election,  but  rejected  reprobation.  In  the  discussion  of 
the  question  of  "  revision  "  in  the  Washington  (Pa.)  Presbytery^ 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Cunningham,  though  opposing  revision,  declared 
that  it  is  "only  a  limited  intelligence  that  can  not  understand 
that  preterition  is  the  necessary  consequence  of  election;"  and 
that,  "  If  we  reject  preterition,  we  must  reject  election."  Rev. 
Dr.  Moffat,  President  of  Washington  and  Jefferson  College,  is 
reported  as  strenuously  advocating  revision,  declaring  that  the 
"  radical  revisionists  "  are  not  confined  to  the  New  York  Presby- 
tery, but  are  all  over  the  country,  and  that  the  New  York  men 
were  only  bolder,  and  had  hung  out  their  banner.  The  action 
of  the  Washington  Presbytery  was  awaited  with  much  interest. 
The  territory  embraced  in  the  presbytery's  limits  is  sometimes 
designated  the  "backbone  of  Presbyterianism,"  and  includes  an 
important  seat  of  learning.  After  protracted  and  earnest  discus- 
sion, the  vote,  forced  b}^  the  call  for  the  previous  question, 
showed  seventeen  for  and  forty-two  against  revision.    One  mem- 


1^8         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

ber  of  the  body  is  reported  as  declaring  it  "  impossible  to  make 
verbal  changes  without  making  doctrinal  changes."  It  is  cer- 
tainly true  that  the  Calvinistic  system  could  not  well  be  stated  in 
more  carefully  chosen  language,  and  if  that  system  is  to  be 
retained  the  entire  discussion  seems  equally  useless  and  mean- 
ingless. But  the  discussion  is  not  meaningless.  It  is  hopefully 
and  immensely  significant,  as  revealing  in  the  laity  and  the  min- 
istry of  that  intelligent,  numerous,  and  powerful  Church,  a  large 
element  fully  determined  so  to  modify  the  creed  as  to  free  the 
doctrine  of  the  goodness  of  God  from  the  frigid  limitations  of 
Calvinistic  predestination.  The  following  passage  from  the 
argument  of  Dr.  MoSfatt  frankly  states  that  the  demand  for  re- 
vision arises  out  of  dissatisfaction  with  the  chapter  on  Decrees ; 
but,  like  others,  he  demands  only  a  change  of  phraseology, 
while,  as  is  apparent,  he  proposes  to  retain  the  Calvinistic  ele- 
ment that  is  the  true  source  of  the  uprising  protest  of  head  and 
heart:  "There  is  not  a  Presbyterian  Church  on  the  face  of  the 
globe  that  has  not  had  trouble  right  here.  To  stand  over  the 
Confession  and  refuse  to  allow  it  to  be  touched  is  not  loyalty. 
If  this  confession  is  capable  of  improvement,  I  feel  bound  to 
attempt  that  improvement.  As  to  the  decrees  of  God,  in  that 
chapter  we  are  telling  the  world  the  character  of  God,  .  .  . 
There  is  in  the  world  the  Calvinistic  idea  of  God ;  we  must  say 
often  to  others,  that  they  are  mistaken  as  to  those  doctrines,  and 
we  have  to  explain  those  sections  in  chapter  three.  We  want  to 
avoid  the  suspicion  of  supralapsarianism,  or  the  doctrine  that 
•God  created  men  in  order  to  damn  them.  Those  old  Westmin- 
ster divines  believed  that,  many  of  them,  and  preached  it;  but 
we  do  not  believe  it  to-day,  nor  teach  it.  Any  minister  to-day 
may  preach  that  doctrine,  and  be  true  to  the  confession :  to  me 
it  is  a  damnable  heresy.  My  whole  conteyition  is  right  here.  The 
■other  proposed  changes  are  unimportant."  If  this  language  is 
icorrectl)'  ascribed  to  Dr.  Moffatt,  we  are  sure  the  reader  will  be 
.amazed  when  told  that,  in  the  same  connection,  the  speaker  said 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  1 49 

"  Let  any  man  propose  a  change  which  would  subvert  any  great 
Calvinistic  doctrines,  and  that  man  would  be  buried  out  of 
sight."  The  fundamental  premise  of  Calvinism  involves  by 
logical  necessity  the  very  doctrine  discarded  as  "  damnable 
heresy,"  and  yet  a  proposition  "  to  subvert  any  great  Calvinistic 
doctrines  "  would,  in  the  Presbyterian  Church,  subject  its  author 
to  "be  buried  out  of  sight !  "  But  again  the  speaker  gets  away 
from  his  Calvinism,  affirming,  "  I  have  told  men  that  if  they  go 
to  hell,  it  is  because  they  want  to  go.  God  does  not  want  men 
to  perish."     Scriptural,  but  very  z^;i-Calvinistic. 

The  Old  Doctrine  Must  Fall. 

The  framers  of  the  Westminster  Confession  certainly  did  be- 
lieve, many  of  them,  the  doctrine  ascribed  to  them  by  Dr. 
Moffat ;  and,  by  his  own  admission,  "  any  minister  to-day  may 
preach  that  doctrine,  and  be  true  to  the  Confession."  Then  it 
must  be  in  the  Confession.  It  is  most  prominently  there,  front- 
ing the  Confession,  in  one  of  its  longest  chapters.  To  such  a 
place  it  is  entitled  in  any  system  of  which  it  is  an  element,  for  it 
can  not  be  subordinate.  As  a  writer  of  the  Calvinistic  school 
puts  it,  "  Election  is  the  great  fundamental  institute  of  the  gos- 
pel :  it  is  that  which  in  human  states  is  called  '  the  supreme 
law ; '  which  is  both  irreversible  in  itself,  and  requires  that  all 
inferior  administrations  maj^  be  accommodated  thereto."  Pre- 
destination is  the  ground-plan  of  the  Calvinistic  structure,  deter- 
mining the  relations  of  all  the  parts,  and  constituting,  as  the 
advocates  tell  us,  "  the  plot  whereby  God  designs  to  himself 
the  highest  glory;"  since,  as  they  affirm,  this  unconditional 
assignment  of  one  human  being  to  heaven  and  another  to  hell, 
"  is  the  sublimest  act,  and  most  apparent  demonstration,  of 
sovereign  power  concerning  men.  '  The  following  excellent 
words  touching  revision  of  the  Westminster  Confession  are  from 
the  pen  of  the  venerable  Dr.  McCosh  :  "  I  can  not  tell  how  glad 
I  am  in  reading  of  the  unanimous  decision  of  the  Presbytery  of 


I^O  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

New  York  in  regard  to  the  revision  of  the  Confession.  When  I 
uttered  my  opinion  on  the  subject,  in  my  Presbytery,  on  October 
I,  I  had  no  clear  idea  as  to  how  Presbyterian  sentiment  was  tend- 
ing. .  .  .  How  pleased  I  am  that  the  Presbytery  of  New  York 
has  come  to  the  same  conclusion  that  I  did.  It  is  clear  that  we 
are  to  have  the  obnoxious  passages  in  the  Confession  vv'ithdrawn 
in  the  course  of  a  year  or  two."  According  to  their  own  state- 
ments, our  brethren  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  are  embarrassed 
with  doctrinal  standards  which,  to  say  the  least,  and  what  they 
admit,  are  liable  to  perplexing  and  damaging  criticism.  It  must 
be  apparent,  too,  that  a  revision  of  its  creed  by  a  Church  of  the 
magnitude  of  the  Presbyterian  body,  must  be  indeed  a  difl&cult 
work.  All  who  sincerely  desire  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  the 
common  household  of  God,  will  pray  that  our  brethren  may,  in 
this  endeavor,  come  at  last  to  such  a  result  as  will  make  the  in- 
telligence, the  wealth,  the  numbers,  and  the  prestige  of  this 
denomination  a  still  greater  power  in  our  own  land  and  through- 
out the  world.  With  its  wonderful  equipment  for  every  branch 
of  Christian  work,  it  has  before  it  grand  possibilities,  which, 
through  a  wise  and  faithful  improvement  of  this  demand  by 
thousands  of  its  own  people  for  the  elimination  of  the  vicious 
Calvinistic  predestination,  it  may  more  than  realize. 

With  the  writer's  earliest  recollections  of  preachers  and 
preaching  are  associated  the  frequent  discussions  of  this  subject 
by  Rev.  Milton  Bird  and  other  ministers  who  introduced  into 
western  Pennsylvania  the  doctrines  of  the  Cumberland  Presby- 
terian Church.  Crowds  of  people  thronged  those  discussions,  to 
be  convinced  by  the  masterly  arguments ;  and  many  were  the 
converts  through  the  gracious  influences  attending  the  urgent 
presentations  of  God's  impartial  love  as  manifested  in  the  gos- 
pel provision  and  the  gospel  call  to  all  men.  Our  early  attempts 
at  the  perusal  of  theological  discussions  embraced  The  Great 
Shipper  by  Rev.  Archibald  Fairchild,  of  the  Presbyterian  Church, 
and  Error  Unmasked,  by  Rev.  Milton  Bird,  and  the  impression 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  15  I 

then  received,  that  in  this  controversy  truth  lies  on  the  side  of 
Cumberland  Presbyterian  doctrine,  has  been  strengthened  by 
much  study  of  the  questions  involved.  A  calm  and  impartial 
view  of  the  doctrine  of  decrees  as  presented  in  the  third  chapter 
of  the  Westminster  Confession — as  far  as  we  are  capable  of  an 
impartial  view,  forces  upon  us  these  conclusions,  as 

Logical  Sequences  of  Predestination. 

I.  Upon  the  hypothesis  of  Westminster  predestination  (elec- 
tion and  preterition),  the  goodness  of  God,  as  we  are  accustomed 
to  think  of  it,  can  not  be  maintained. 

The  Westminster  Confession  declares  that  God  is  "  infinite  in 
being  and  perfection,"  and  "  abundant  in  goodness."  If  it  is 
meant  that  goodness  is  an  attribute,  it  is  infinite.  Our  Con- 
fession positively  asserts  that  God  is  "  infinite,  eternal,  and  un- 
changeable "  in  being  and  attributes,  goodness  included  in  the  lat- 
ter. The  Scriptures  declare  that  "  God  is  love''  (i  Johniv.  8). 
This  passage  teaches,  as  Macknight  justly  observes,  "  that  God 
greatly  delights  in  the  exercise  of  benevolence,  and  perhaps  that 
his  other  perfections  are  exerted  for  the  accomplishment  of 
his  benevolent  purposes ;  "  and  adds,  that  "the  declaration  that 
'  God  is  love '  must  afford  us  the  greatest  consolation,  as  it  as- 
sureth  us  that  all  God's  dealings  with  us  proceed  from  love,  and 
in  the  end  will  assuredly  issue  in  our  happiness,  unless  we  re- 
fuse to  co-operate  with  him."  The  relation  of  the  idea  of  an  un- 
conditional decree  electing  a  portion  of  humanity  to  salvation, 
and  passing  by  the  rest,  to  the  idea  of  the  goodness,  or  love  of 
God,  is  a  very  plain  one.  If  of  two  of  my  fellow  beings  exposed, 
by  their  own  fault,  to  imminent  peril,  I  rescue  one,  and,  of  my 
own  good  pleasure,  pass  the  other  by,  when  I  could  as  readily 
have  rescued  both,  no  one  would  claim  that  I  had  done  as  much 
good  as  I  could  have  done.  Had  both  been  entirely  destitute  of 
claim  upon  my  sympathy  and  interposition,  so  much  the  more 
conspicuous  would  have  been  the  goodness  that  prompted  to  the 


1^2         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

rescue  of  both.  "  Turn  this  (Calvinistic)  sj-stem  as  you  will," 
■says  a  vigorous  thinker,  "  it  sweeps  awa}^  the  merc}^  and  good- 
ness of  God,  and,  in  most  cases,  transforms  even  the  invitations 
and  promises  into  scalding  messages  of  aggravated  wrath." 
But  we  would  not  indulge  in  bitter  words,  whether  our  own  or 
borrowed.  We  most  heartily  sympathize  with  those  who  desire 
so  to  revise  their  creed  as  to  make  prominent  the  love  of  God 
now  so  overshadowed  by  the  unconditional  decree.  The  Bible 
declares  that  "  the  love  of  Christ  passeth  knowledge,"  in  other 
words,  that  it  exceeds  human  conception  ;  but  theologians  have 
certainly  formulated  systems  which  practically  limit  that  love. 
The  following  passage,  from  a  transatlantic  author,  breathes  so 
good  a  spirit,  and  so  conspicuously  sets  forth  the  ideas  we  would 
present  in  this  connection,  that  we  commend  it  to  the  reader's 
careful  attention : 

"  You  can  not  have  a  plainer  statement  of  a  fact  than  that 
'  God  so  loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that 
whosoever  believeth  in  him  should  not  perish,  but  should  have 
everlasting  life.'  It  sets  before  us  the  love  of  the  Father  and  of 
the  Son  in  all  simplicity  and  fullness ;  shows  us  the  fact  of  a 
divine  love  greater  than  Vv^e,  if  we  try  it,  can  comprehend.  But 
men  have  not  been  content  with  this.  They  have  said,  '  There 
must  be  a  reason  for  this,  and  we  must  find  it.  Love  must  work 
according  to  a  system,  and  w'e  must  lay  it  dovv'n.'  And  so  we 
meet  with  those  who  would  teach  us  to  believe,  not  in  the  love 
of  God  as  the  first  and  greatest  fact  in  the  universe,  but  in  what 
they  call  the  '  decree  '  whereby  they  say  he,  for  his  own  pleasure 
and  own  glor}^  elects  some  to  eternal  life,  and  lets  his  love  rest 
on  them  through  Christ,  and  passes  by  others,  also  for  his  own 
pleasure  and  glory,  and  lets  his  curse  rest  on  them  forever  and 
ever.  Are  we  wiser  when  we  have  got  this  into  our  heads  than 
we  were  before  with  the  simple  words  of  the  Bible?  Is  it  easier 
for  us  to  understand  a  God  who  shall,  '  for  his  own  glory,'  pick 
and  choose   among  his  creatures,  giving   some  a   certainty  of 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  1 53; 

salvation,  and  some  not  the  smallest  chance,  than  to  understand 
that  he  loves  us  all  with  a  love  that '  passeth  knowledge.'  Is  the 
puzzle  of  the  universe,  the  '  riddle  of  the  painful  earth,'  simpli- 
fied when  you  have  set  up  over  it  as  your  highest  idea  of  the 
divine,  the  decree  of  an  absolute  will,  instead  of  the  love  of  an 
all-embracing  heart  ?  Does  the  mystery  of  the  universal  love  of 
God  to  such  as  we  are,  the  mystery  of  Christ's  willing  sacrifice 
for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world,  survive  such  treatment  as  this  ? 
Does  this  explanation  leave  us  with  a  love  that  'passes  our 
knowledge  ? '  Is  there  any  difficulty  in  comprehending  a  love  so 
partial  and  so  wayward  as  this  would  represent  the  love  of  God 
to  be,  a  love  of  which  any  man  with  his  own  children  round 
him  would  be  ashamed,  if  he  felt  that  to  serve  mere  ends 
of  his  own,  ends  which  they  could  not  understand,  and  which 
he  could  never  make  them  understand,  he  was  deliberately  doing 
some  of  them  the  greatest  kindness,  and  dooming  others  of 
them,  in  secret,  to  the  most  hopeless  misery  ?  Would  \'ou  not 
call  such  a  man  selfish,  and  such  children  unjustly  used? 
Would  that  not  be  the  verdict  of  the  calmest,  wisest,  and  justest 
minds,  and  rightly  so?  And  what  right  has  any  man,  or  any 
set  of  men,  to  invest  God  with  attributes  which  we  condemn  in 
man ;  to  ascribe  to  the  Creator  conduct  which  even  in  the 
creature  we  should  say  was  unworthy  and  unjust?  Is  this 
'  giving  God  glory,'  as  it  is  professed  to  be  ?  On  the  contrary, 
it  is  doing  him  dishonor.  It  is  explaining  in  the  coarsest  way, 
and  according  to  the  harshest  ideas,  that  which  his  word  has 
told  us  is  too  vast  and  lofty  for  us  to  comprehend." 

2.  The  Calvinistic  doctrhie  of  predestination  necessarily  in- 
volves fatality,  and  thereby  sweeps  away  the  basis  of  freedom  of 
the  will,  of  the  moral  quality  of  actions,  and  of  what,  in  the 
usual  acceptation  of  the  term,  is  called  moral  government.  Ac- 
cording to  this  system,  moral  government  can  be  as  appropriate- 
ly predicated  of  the  world  of  matter  as  of  the  world  of  mind. 
In  the  physical  world,  as  Chalmers  says,  every  mile  of  a  planet's 


154 


DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 


orbit,  every  gust  of  wind,  every  wave  of  the  sea,  every  particle 
of  flying  dust,  every  rivulet  of  flowing  water,  "receives  a  deter- 
minate character  from  the  power  of  God,"  and,  according  to  the 
same  author,  the  same  power  operating  in  the  world  of  mind 
gives  birth  to  every  purpose,  impulse  to  every  desire,  shape  and 
color  to  every  conception.  If  the  power  thus  controlling  "  the 
will,  the  fancy,  the  understanding,  with  all  the  countless  variet)' 
■of  their  hidden  and  fugitive  operations,"  be  the  power  of  an 
•omnipotent  Creator  who  thus  executes  his  decrees,  man  is,  as  to 
all  ideas  of  responsibility,  as  utterly  destitute  of  freedom  as  is  a 
locomotive.  One  is  run  by  the  power  of  steam,  the  other  by 
the  power  of  God — rather,  as  Chalmers  would  have  it,  both  by 
the  power  of  God.  So  Thomas  Aquinas  taught,  following 
Augustine,  "  that,  as  God's  providence  extended  itself  to  every 
thing,  it  immediately  concurred  in  the  production  of  our 
thoughts,  motions,  and  actions,  and  by  a  physical  influence." 
Can  we,  with  an  open  Bible,  and  with  the  views  we  must  enter- 
tain of  the  moral  deserts  of  human  conduct,  call  it  less  than 
blasphemy  against  Heaven,  and  treason  against  humanity,  to 
assert,  as  do  these  predestinarians,  that  the  impulse  which 
causes  the  murderer  to  inflict  the  deadly  blow,  and  the  blow 
itself,  are  suggested,  concurred  in,  and  necessitated  by  the 
will  of  God?  Yet,  such  extreme  fatalistic  views  are  not 
only  avowed  by  the  more  daring  predestinarians,  but  are 
logical  sequences  from  which  no  possible  explanations  can 
relieve  the  system.  According  to  the  Augustinian  doctrine  that 
the  will  of  God  is  the  necessity  of  things,  and  that  every  man  is 
created  and  predestinated  eternally  and  unchangeably,  some  to 
life,  some  to  death,  it  must  be  true  that  every  human  being  is 
tending  to  one  of  these  destinies  under  a  necessity  from  which 
it  is  as  impossible  for  him  to  escape  as  it  is  for  a  lifeless  body  to 
Ijurst  the  bands  of  death.  If  that  is  not  fatality,  there  is  no 
such  thing. 

3.   That  the  doctrine  of  the  unive?'sal,  7tnconditional  decree,  as 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  155 

taught  in  the  Westminster  Confession,  if  not  payitheistic,  is  very 
nearly  allied  to  that  idea.  Pantheism  is  the  doctrine  that  the 
universe  is  God,  God  the  universe.  If  the  number  of  ears  of 
corn  produced  in  a  5'ear,  the  number  of  rows  on  each  ear,  and 
of  grains  in  each  row,  and  every  chirp  of  a  bird,  and  flexure  of 
a  rivulet,  and  impulse  of  the  human  sensibility,  and  every  dream 
of  the  imagination,  and  every  volition,  with  every  other  phe- 
nomenon of  mind  and  of  matter,  are  to  be  ascribed  to  the  direct 
agency  of  God,  I  feel  myself  bordering  on  the  thought  that  the 
world  is  God. 

It  is  by  no  means  the  writer's  purpose  to  attempt  a  systematic 
discussion  of  the  subject  of  decrees,  or  to  attempt  a  refutation 
of  the  system  of  doctrine  known  as  Calvinism.  In  the  desultory 
collation  of  the  ideas  presented,  it  has  been  his  purpose  to  indi- 
cate the  line  of  thought  pursued  by  Cumberland  Presbyterians 
in  their  departure  from  that  mixture  of  fatalistic  philosophy  and 
scriptural  doctrine,  as  it  has  been  justly  designated,  from  which 
multitudes  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  are  to-day  struggling  to 
free  their  Standards. 

Cumberland  Presbyterians  Wonderfully  Vindicated. 

Believing  that  in  their  departure  from  the  Westminster  system 
Cumberland  Presbyterians  made  most  important  progress  toward 
the  true  interpretation  of  the  system  of  the  Bible,  we  feel  that 
if  these  pages  shall,  in  any  measure,  contribute  to  our  steadfast- 
ness in  those  great  principles  for  the  recognition  of  which  our 
fathers  struggled  so  nobly,  a  valuable  service  will  have  been 
rendered  in  the  interest  of  precious  truths.  Men  who  are,  in 
piety  and  learning,  recognized  lights  in  the  Presbyterian  Church 
are  to-day  fighting  the  very  battles  our  fathers  fought  eighty 
years  ago,  and  with  this  repetition  of  the  struggle  comes  most 
grateful  testimony  to  the  wisdom  and  justice  of  the  course  pur- 
sued by  those  fathers.  The  following  declarations  by  the  pastor 
of  Madison  Square   Presbyterian   Church,  New  York,  are  the 


156  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

sentiments  uttered,  in  language  less  severe,  by  Ewing,  King,. 
Donnell,  and  others,  at  the  opening  of  the  century:  "The  love 
of  God  stands  out  on  the  face  of  the  gospel.  In  the  Confession 
you  have  to  hunt  for  it  in  order  to  find  it.  The  center  of  gravity 
of  the  Confession  does  not  coincide  with  the  center  of  gravity 
of  the  gospel.  If,  now,  we  are  going  to  retain  this  pretention 
idea  in  our  Confession,  then  we  must  be  true  to  it  in  our  preach- 
ing as  Presbyterian  ministers,  and  on  occasion  declare  it  in  all 
frankness.  We  shall  be  obliged  to  address  our  congregations 
somewhat  after  this  manner :  '  My  friends,  I  am  sorry  to  say  it, 
but  as  a  Calvinistic  Presbyterian  I  am  bound  to  say  it,  that 
Christ  did  not  die  for  all.  There  is  a  certain  amount  of  fatalism 
in  the  case.  Some  men  are  damned,  and  not  onl}-  that,  but  con- 
genitally  damned — damned  before  they  are  born,  hated  of  God 
even  in  the  moment  of  conception.'  " 

Did  a  Cumberland  Presbyterian  ever  make  graver  charges 
against  the  Westminster  Confession  than  does  this  eminent 
divine  occup3^ing  a  metropolitan  Presbyterian  pulpit?  And  his 
presbytery  did  not  prefer  charges  of  heresy,  but  voted  solid  for 
revision. 

Rev.  Dr.  S.  M.  Hamilton,  of  the  Presbytery  of  New  York,  is 
reported  as  sa3''ing,  during  the  two  weeks'  discussion  on  revis- 
ion :  "  Preterition  is  a  mere  attempt  of  men  to  confine  the  ways 
of  the  Almighty  by  their  petty  syllogisms.  To  infer  that  God 
has  for  his  own  pleasure  '  passed  by '  any  living  soul  is  impossi- 
ble, except  to  a  man  who  has  never  caught  the  first  glimmer  of 
the  radiance  from  the  Savior.  .  .  .  You  may  say  that  the  Con- 
fession does  not  teach  unconditional  preterition,  but  at  any  rate 
it  makes  every  body  think  it  does."  Similarly  Dr.  M.  R.  Vin- 
cent, of  Union  Theological  Seminary,  declared  his  belief  that 
"the  root  of  the  difficulty  lies  in  the  Standards,  not  in  the 
Church."  "The  Confession  claims,"  he  continued,  "to  repre- 
sent the  word  of  God.  And  this  claim,  as  it  respects  certain 
Statements  of  the  Confession,  is  challenged.     I  am  one  of  those 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  157 

^ho  challenge  it.  .  .  .  The  third  chapter  declares  that  some 
men  and  angels  are  foreordained  unto  everlasting  death,  and 
that  their  number  is  so  certain  that  it  can  not  be  either  increased 
or  diminished.  As  a  teacher  of  the  New  Testament  Scriptures 
in  one  of  the  Church's  Theological  schools  /  declare  my  belief 
that  that  doctrine  is  not  taught  in  the  Holy  Scriptures.  ...  I  can 
not  understand  how  it  is  possible  for  any  man  who  declares  his 
belief  in  the  statements  of  the  Confession  to  go  into  his  pulpit 
and  make  a  free  offer  of  salvation  to  his  congregation,"  Ex- 
pressions of  like  character  could  be  cited  almost  without  limit. 
The  foregoing,  from  men  eminent  for  learning  and  occupying 
high  positions  in  the  Presbyterian  Church,  sufl&ce  to  illustrate 
the  clear  and  powerful  vindication  of  the  teachings  and  policy 
of  Cumberland  Presbyterians  developed  by  the  current  discus- 
sion on  revision. 

In  milder  terms  than  these  men  have  employed,  Rev.  Finis 
Bwing,  one  of  the  men  who  organized  the  Cumberland  Presby- 
terian Church,  said  that  "  the  great  decree  of  God  which  con- 
cerns man's  salvation  is,  '  He  that  believeth  and  is  baptized 
shall  be  saved,  and  he  that  believeth  not  shall  be  damned.'  .  .  . 
If  words  have  any  determinate  meaning,  these  are  conditions  on 
which  our  salvation  depends.  Here,  then,  is  a  revealed  decree. 
Men  may  talk  or  say  what  they  please  about  secret  decrees,  pur- 
poses, predestination,  election,  etc.,  but  we  have  just  seen  the 
decree  of  the  Bible;  the  predestination,  foreordination,  and 
election  of  the  Bible.  .  .  .  God  is  a  mighty  sovereign,  possessing 
the  right  to  work  where,  when,  how,  and  on  whom  he  will,  yet 
it  is  nowhere  definitely  stated  that  God  chose  some  to  eternal 
salvation,  except  on  the  condition  of  faith  and  repentance." 

Rev.  Robert  Donnell,  D.D.,  an  eloquent  and  powerful  preacher 
of  the  gospel  in  its  simplicity,  and  one  of  the  ablest  expounders 
and  defenders  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian 
Church,  fifty  or  more  years  ago  enunciated  in  the  subjoined 
little  summary,  the  very  statement  of  the  Bible  doctrine  of  sal- 


158         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

vation  by  grace  for  which  the  progressive  party  in  the  Presbyte- 
rian Church  is  to-day  nobly  contending : 

"The  plan  of  the  Bible  is  grace  and  duty.  God  calls;  the 
sinner  must  accept  it.  Then  God  justifies,  adopts,  renews,  sanc- 
tifies, and  glorifies.  The  scheme  of  salvation  originates  with 
God,  and  is  carried  out  in  man's  agency.  The  system  is  gra- 
cious, and  personal  accountability  is  secured.  Election  in  the 
first  instance  was  sovereign,  gracious,  and  free,  choosing  all 
men  to  a  day  of  mercy.  Personal  election  turns  on  the  choice 
of  the  sinner  elect  through  sanctification  of  the  Spirit,  and  be- 
lief of  the  truth.  And  thus  free  moral  agency  is  sustained. 
God  receives  all  the  glory  of  faith ;  and  man  all  the  damnation 
of  unbelief." 

NOTE. 

BxPL,ANATORY   AND   APOLOGETIC. 

"  For  we  can  do  nothing  against  the  truth,  but  for  the  truth." — Paul. 

"  We  do  not  take  possession  of  our  ideas,  but  are  possessed  by  them. 
They  master  us,  and  force  us  into  the  arena. 
Where,  like  gladiators,  we  must  fight  for  them." — Heine. 

To  distinguish  Cumberland  Presbyterians  doctrinally  as  a 
branch  of  the  great  Presbyterian  family  necessitates  a  clear  and 
full  statement  of  the  teaching  of  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian 
Confession  of  Faith  on  the  subject  of  the  Decrees  of  God,  in 
contrast  with  the  teaching  of  the  Westminster  Confession, 
Such  presentation  of  our  views,  however,  whether  through  the 
press  or  from  the  pulpit,  has  not  unfrequently  been  the  occasion 
of  complaint  that  we  are  unfair  in  our  interpretation  of  the 
Westminster  Confession,  and  that,  as  theological  disputants,  we 
are  disturbers  of  the  peace  of  the  Church.  It  seems  suitable, 
therefore,  to  ask  our  brethren  of  the  other  side,  at  this  stage  of 
the  statement  of  our  views,  to  consider  what  we  regard  the 
necessity  that  has  been  upon  us  to  discuss  this  subject,  both  in 
view  of  our  obligation  to  defend  the  truth,  as  we  understand  it. 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  159 

and  in  order  to  answer  honest  inquiry  in  regard  to  the  doc- 
trinal diflference  between  Cumberland  Presbyterians  and  other 
branches  of  the  Presbyterian  family. 

Many  times  have  members  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  said 
to  us,  after  our  attempt  at  stating  our  doctrinal  views  on  the 
controverted  points,  "  Why,  that  is  just  what  we  believe."  To 
all  such  we  might  justly  say,  "  Then,  certainly,  if  you  are  not 
in  the  wrong  Church,  your  Church  has  the  wrong  confession  of 
faith."  It  is  with  the  writer  a  matter  of  recollection  that  the 
early  Cumberland  Presbyterian  ministers  in  Pennsylvania  fre- 
quently discussed  from  the  pulpit  the  doctrines  of  decrees, 
election,  freedom  of  the  will,  infant  salvation,  and  other  doc- 
trines wherein  by  formal  statement  or  logical  sequence  our 
standard  differs  from  the  Westminster.  While  those  controver- 
sial discourses  sometimes  stirred  up  strife,  and  were  the  occa- 
sion of  bitter  charges  of  unfairness  and  even  of  bad  motives  as 
prompting  them,  it  is  our  belief  that  they  did  good,  and  that, 
for  the  most  part,  they  were  prompted  by  sincere  convictions  of 
duty  on  the  part  of  men  seemingly  endowed  with  wonderful 
power  in  the  presentation  of  the  great  truths  they  felt  them- 
selves set  to  defend.  Nor  can  it  be  doubted  that  many  a  good 
and  faithful  minister  of  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church 
has  come  to  the  discussion  of  the  disputed  doctrines  with  the 
sincere  desire  which  pervades  the  writer's  mind  in  this  allusion 
to  the  controversy — namely,  that  the  controversy  come  to  an  end. 
Yet,  whatever  the  conditions  it  impose  upon  us,  whether  of 
peace  or  controversy,  we  must  unwaveringly  heed  the  divine 
command  to  "  buy  the  truth,  and  sell  it  not." 

As  a  last  word  upon  the  subject,  the  following  points  are 
submitted  as  affirming  what  the  writer  firmly  believes  to  be  the 
truth  touching  this  controversy : 

I.  The  difference  between  the  teaching  of  the  Cumberland 
Presbyterian  Confession,  and  that  of  the  Westminster  Confes- 
sion, is  radical,  and  is  widely  related  as  a  determining  factor  in 


l6o  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

a  theological  system,  necessarily  affecting  our  views  of  the  love 
of  God,  the  extent  and  design  of  the  atonement,  the  gospel  call, 
of  the  sinner's  ability  to  accept  the  gospel  offer,  of  moral  merit 
and  demerit,  of  the  very  foundation  of  moral  government. 

2.  That  Cumberland  Presbyterians  have  interpreted  the 
Westminster  Confession  according  to  the  obvious  and  literal 
meaning  of  its  language,  in  its  true  historic  sense,  and  as  it  is 
now  usually  interpreted  in  the  Calvinistic  theological  schools. 

3.  That  many  pious  and  learned  men  in  the  Calvinistic 
branches  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  now  interpret  the  West- 
minster Confession  exactly  as  Cumberland  Presbyterians  have 
interpreted  it,  and  on  that  interpretation  base  their  pleas  for  a 
revision  of  that  Confession. 

Of  the  truth  of  the  last  proposition,  the  present  discussion 
which  agitates  the  mother  Church  from  center  to  circumference 
affords  interesting  and  abundant  proof;  so  that,  were  they  in 
need  of  it,  Cumberland  Presbyterians  could  find  in  the  pending 
discussion  ample  justification  of  their  interpretation  and  rejec- 
tion of  the  Westminster  Confession.  In  illustration  of  the 
statement  here  made,  from  the  vast  number  of  pertinent  decla- 
rations which  have  gone  to  the  public  we  can  not  make  a  better 
selection  than  the  brief,  but  most  comprehensive,  statement  of 
the  late  Judge  Alexander  Wilson  Acheson,  of  Washington,  Pa. 
Judge  Acheson,  who  died  in  July,  1890,  at  the  advanced  age  of 
eighty  years,  was  a  man  widely  known  for  ability  in  his  profes- 
sion, for  his  general  intelligence,  and  his  deep  interest  in  all 
movements  for  the  good  of  society.  He  was  esteemed  indeed 
a  just  judge,  who  feared  God,  and  regarded  man  in  all  that  per- 
tains to  man's  well-being.  Himself  a  Presbyterian,  a  student 
of  theology  as  well  as  of  law,  so  correct  an  interpreter  of  the 
meaning  of  language  that  his  judicial  decisions  covering  many 
years  in  a  busy  court  were  seldom  if  ever  reversed.  Judge 
Acheson,  prompted  by  his  disappointment  in  the  vote  of  the 
Washington  Presbytery  on   the   question  of  revision,  penned, 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  l6l 

seemingly  as  a  dying  testimony,  the  following  plea  for  revision, 
setting  forth  therein,  as  the  reader  will  note,  such  an  interpre- 
tation of  the  old  standards  as  fully  concedes  all  that  Cumber- 
land Presbyterians  have  claimed.  It  will  be  seen,  too,  that  the 
learned  jurist,  whose  "most  prominent  characteristic"  a  eulo- 
gist declared  to  be  "  his  quick  grasp  of  legal  principles,  joined 
with  peculiar  power  in  tracing  the  analogies  of  the  law,  and 
applying  them  to  new  questions  at  issue,"  did  not  desire  only 
such  a  revision  as  would  preserve  the  old  doctrinal  system 
intact,  but  clothe  it  in  a  more  modern  dress,  but  that  the  "  iron 
collar"  might  be  entirely  broken,  and  his  Church  thus  freed; 
which  "  iron  collar,"  be  it  obser\'ed,  is  the  very  same  "  fatalism  " 
which  the  fathers  of  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church  cast 
off,  which  they  believed  to  be  taught  under  the  mystery  of  Cal- 
vinistic  predestination.  Here  is  the  truth  as  "grasped  in  the 
struggle  of  the  great  soul"  of  the  advocate,  judge,  and  Chris- 
tian philanthropist,  and  uttered  with  a  courage  born  of  honest 
convictions,  and  with  faith  that  his  people  would  finally  eliminate 
from  their  creed  the  vicious  element  "  which  obscures  the  infi- 
nite love  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus  for  a  lost  world :  " 

"  Revision  Reviewed — Views  op  a  Learned  Layman  that 
Can  Not  be  Misunderstood. 

''  Editor  Journal . — Allow  an  old  Presbyterian  to  express  his 
disappointment  at  the  result  of  the  revision  question  in  our 
Washington  Presbytery.  I  am  not  a  scholastic  theologian,  and 
therefore  may  lack  clear  insight  into  mysteries  difiicult  of  com- 
prehension ;  but  I  am  a  firm  believer  in  a  coming  closer  Church 
union  and  affiliation  among  Christians  of  all  denominations.  I 
see  the  signs  now  in  the  increase  of  fraternal  intercourse  and 
the  softening  of  religious  intolerance  and  bigotry. 

"  If  John  Calvin  were  living  to-day  I  think  he  would  be  a 
sweeter  tempered  Christian,  a  less  dogmatic  theologian,  and 
not  so  much  of  a  fatalist,  indisposed  to  consign  infants  to  dam- 
II 


1 62  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

nation,  or  even  Catholics,  on  the  ground  of  their  being  infidels 
and  outside  the  covenanted  mercies  of  God. 

"  The  famous  old  lawyers  of  the  last  century,  Lord  Eldon,  Sir 
William  Blackstone,  and  other  legal  celebrities,  resisted  to  the 
death  all  changes  in  the  English  criminal  law,  for  the  reason 
that  it  had  the  sanction  of  antiquity,  and  any  change  would 
endanger  the  pillars  of  jurisprudence.  True,  it  visited  the  mur- 
derer and  the  stealer  of  bread  with  equal  and  exact  justice  by 
hanging  both  of  them  by  the  neck,  but  what  of  that  so  long  as 
the  sacred  standards  sanctioned  it  ? 

"  I  believe  in  God's  sovereignty  over  man's  destiny  for  time 
and  eternity,  but  I  do  not  believe  in  the  infallibility  of  the 
learned  Westminster  divines  nor  of  the  Pope.  I  believe  in  the 
inspiration  of  the  great  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles,  but  to  get  clear 
insight  into  his  mind,  we  must  sit  at  the  feet  of  the  Master,  and 
learn  of  him  the  mysteries  of  his  kingdom.  I  should  be  puz- 
zled touching  the  mission  of  womankind  in  his  church  if  I 
stopped  with  Paul.  I  can  understand  what  it  is,  however,  when 
I  listen  to  his  gracious  words  of  tenderness  and  love  to  women. 
So  we  must  study  Christ  and  Paul  together.  Christ  before  Paul 
always,  to  get  at  the  harmony  existing  in  the  sacred  word.  I 
think  the  Westminster  divines  in  their  excessive  admiration  for 
Calvin  forgot  this.  They  lived  in  a  stormy  time ;  a  fierce  con- 
flict was  raging  about  dogmas  ;  persecution  reigned,  and  they 
were  filled  with  the  wrath  of  Sinai  more  than  touched  by  the 
tender  mercy  of  Calvary.  If  we  are  to  understand  that  there  is 
no  salvation  out  of  Christ,  in  the  sense  of  our  Confession  of 
Faith — that  in  the  councils  of  eternity,  before  time  began,  the 
damnation  of  the  larger  portion  of  mankind  was  predestined 
and  decreed,  the  mercy  of  God  becomes  overclouded,  his  justice 
eclipsed,  and  the  mission  of  our  Savior  shorn  of  its  sweetest 
attraction. 

"The   old   last   century  lawyers   resisted   all   change   of  the 
criminal  creed  of  their  day,  but  were  constrained  by  an  enlight- 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  163 

ened  public  conscience  to  provide  some  outlet  of  escape  from 
the  horrible  result  of  their  creed,  and  this  consisted  in  the  inter- 
position of  executive  clemency,  staying  the  prescribed  punish- 
ment. And  so  the  rank  and  file  of  Presbyterian  Church  mem- 
bers are  exempted  from  the  rigors  of  the  Confession,  only 
ministers  and  Church  officers  being  made  amenable  to  strict 
discipline  for  their  lack  of  faith.  This  speaks  feebly  for  the 
outcry  against  revision  on  the  ground  of  danger  to  the  pillars 
of  our  faith. 

"  Nearly  nineteen  centuries  have  passed  away  since  the  cruci- 
fixion. The  command  to  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature 
remains  unfulfilled  to  this  day.  Have  all  the  innumerable  host 
of  human  souls  brought  into  existence  by  the  fiat  of  the 
Almighty  through  these  centuries  been  sunk  to  endless  perdi- 
tion by  the  default  of  the  Church  to  fulfill  his  dying  command  ? 
'  How  can  they  hear  without  a  preacher?'  Are  they  lost  for  not 
accepting  Christ  or  for  not  living  up  to  the  light  afforded  by 
nature  and  natural  instinct?  Bad  as  unregenerate  human 
nature  is,  what  warrant  have  we  for  saying  that  no  heathen  soul 
during  the  past  centuries  has  lifted  itself  by  the  light  of  nature 
to  search  after  God,  if  peradventure  it  could  find  him  ? 

"  Is  God  still  calling  infants  into  existence  to  consign  them  to 
perdition  by  his  electing  grace  ?  Regret  as  you  may  the  agita- 
tion of  revision,  it  is  upon  the  Church,  it  will  not  down,  there  is 
too  much  moral  force  behind  it.  If  it  should  rend  the  grand 
old  Presbyterian  body,  where  will  the  dreadful  responsibility 
lie?  It  is  in  vain  to  say  that  there  are  wolves  in  sheep's 
clothing  within  the  Church  seeking  to  overthrow  the  funda- 
mental doctrine  of  God's  elective  grace  and  sovereignty.  The 
sincere  advocates  of  revision  seek  not  to  lay  sacrilegious  hands 
on  the  ark  of  the  covenant ;  they  aim  to  take  off"  us  a  cruel  iron 
collar  burthensome  to  their  consciences,  which  obscures  the 
infinite  love  of  God  in  Christ  for  a  lost  world. 

"A.   W.   ACHESON." 


164  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

These  words  of  a  Christian  layman,  brief,  but  wonderfully 
comprehensive,  in  no  ambiguous  manner  reveal  his  position  touch- 
ing this  controversy,  clearly  showing  his  belief  (i)  that  the  West- 
minster doctrine  of  decrees  fairly  interpreted  means  the  "  iron 
collar"  of  fatality  about  man's  neck,  or,  in  his  own  language, 
"  that  in  the  councils  of  eternity,  before  time  began,  the  damna- 
tion of  the  larger  portion  of  mankind  was  predestinated  and 
decreed ;  "  (2)  that  according  to  the  teaching  of  Christ,  no  one 
of  the  human  race,  whether  of  those  who  hear  the  gospel,  of 
those  who  hear  it  not,  or  of  those  dying  in  infancy,  is  doomed  to 
inevitable  destruction  by  an  eternal  unconditional  decree  of 
God  absolutely  predestinating  some  men  to  life  and  others  to 
death;  (3)  that  a  refusal  to  revise  theological  codes  simply  be- 
cause they  are  "  time-honored  "  does  not  comport  with  that  true 
spirit  of  progress  and  of  freedom  of  thought  through  which  the 
human  mind  has  achieved  its  great  advancement  in  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  word  and  the  works  of  God. 

With  Judge  Acheson,  the  writer  of  these  lines  is  "a  firm 
believer  in  a  coming  closer  Church  union  and  affiliation  of 
Christians  of  all  denominations,"  and  whatever  signs  there  may 
be,  "  in  an  increase  of  fraternal  intercourse  and  the  softening  of 
religious  intolerance,"  of  this  "  coming  closer  Church  union  and 
affiliation,"  we  too  rejoice  in  those  signs,  as  did  the  good  and 
venerable  man  who  now  enjoys  the  full  measure  of  the  union 
and  affiliation  often,  alas,  but  too  feebly  foreshadowed  in  the 
Church  on  earth.  The  reader  is  asked,  however,  not  to  con- 
strue the  foregoing  expression  as  any  declaration  of  opinion  on 
the  part  of  the  writer  regarding  the  practicability  or  desirableness 
of  organic  union  of  Cumberland  Presbyterians  with  the  Calvin- 
istic  branches  ;  and  equally  does  the  writer  desire  that  neither 
this  note,  nor  the  preceding  presentation  of  the  subject  of 
decrees,  nor  any  other  section  of  this  doctrinal  statement  shall 
be  regarded  as  an  effort  to  build  a  dyke  against  any  tendency  to 
union  that  is  likely  to  come  out  of  the  pending  movement  for 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  1 65 

the  revision  of  the  old  standards.  On  this  question  of  very- 
grave  importance  we  are  open  to  conviction,  and  willing,  we 
trust,  to  walk,  from  time  to  time,  in  what  Providence  may  indi- 
cate to  be  the  path  of  duty.  In  passing  it  is  not  amiss  to  avow 
our  conviction  that  if  the  two  great  branches  of  the  Presbyte- 
rian Church  whose  chief  difference  seems  to  be  that  of 
geographical  distribution,  and  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian 
Church,  could  unite  on  a  brief  doctrinal  formula  clearly  stating 
the  impartial  love  of  God,  a  general  atonement,  the  offer  of  sal- 
vation to  all  men,  man's  responsibility  in  view  of  the  Spirit's 
quickening  influences  secured  to  all  to  whom  the  gospel  comes, 
and  that  a  godly  life  is  the  scriptural  test  of  saving  faith  in 
Christ,  and  of  right  to  membership  in  the  body  of  Christ,  the 
united  Church,  on  such  a  doctrinal  basis,  and  with  such  a  bap- 
tism of  the  Spirit  as  would  endow  it  with  the  zeal  which  char- 
acterized the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  first  half 
century  of  its  existence,  would  prove  such  a  power  for  good  as 
the  world  has  yet  scarcely  beheld.  Not  only  is  the  door  wide- 
open,  in  the  providence  of  God,  for  the  immediate  publication 
of  the  gospel  in  all  lands,  and  opportunity  and  the  world's  need 
thus  challenging  the  mightiest  energies  of  God's  people  of  all 
names,  but  the  gravest  social,  moral,  and  religious  problems 
will  tax  the  energies  of  the  Church  to  the  uttermost  in  order  to 
the  salvation  of  our  own  country,  which,  as  one  has  said,  must 
be  held  for  Christianity,  or  all  is  lost.  The  Christianity  of 
to-day  is  indeed  doing  much.  It  is  potentially  the  light  of  the 
world,  and  such  it  may  soon  be  in  fact ;  but  as  it  is  nearly  two 
thousand  years  since  the  Master  gave  command  to  preach  his 
gospel  to  every  creature,  and  so  large  a  portion  of  the  world  has 
not  yet  heard  that  gospel,  is  there  not  serious  ground  for  consid- 
ering whether  the  multiplicity  of  Christian  sects  does  not 
involve  the  expenditure  of  much  means  and  energy  which 
might  otherwise  be  much  more  directly  available  for  the  world's 
conversion  ? 


1 66         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 


CHAPTER   V. 

CREATION. 

It  pleased  God,  for  the  manifestation  of  the  glory  of  his  eternal  power, 
wisdom,  and  goodness,  to  create  the  world  and  all  things  therein,  whether 
visible  or  invisible ;  and  all  very  good.  After  God  had  made  all  other 
creatures,  he  created  man  in  his  own  image ;  male  and  female  created  he 
them,  enduing  them  with  intelligence,  sensibility,  and  will ;  they  having 
the  law  of  God  written  in  their  hearts,  and  power  to  fulfill  it,  being  up- 
right and  free  from  all  bias  to  evil. — Co7ifession  of  Faith. 

In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven  and  the  earth. — Genesis  i.  i. 

"  For  the  invisible  things  of  him,  even  his  eternal  power  and  Godhead, 
since  the  creation  of  the  world  are  clearly  seen,  being  understood  by  the 
things  that  are  made." — Rom.  i.  20. 

"  What  therefore  ye  worship  in  ignorance,  this  set  I  forth  unto  you. 
The  God  that  made  the  world  and  all  things  therein,  he,  being  Lord  of 
heaven  and  earth,  dwelleth  not  in  temples  made  with  hands,  neither  is  he 
served  by  men's  hands  as  though  he  needed  any  thing,  seeing  he  himself 
givethtoalllife,  and  breath,  and  all  things;  a-a.d.\ie^  made  of  one  every  fiation 
of  men  for  to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth,  having  determined  their  ap- 
pointed seasons,  and  the  bounds  of  their  habitation  ;  that  thej^  should 
seek  God,  if  haply  they  might  feel  after  him,  and  find  him,  though  he  is 
not  far  from  each  one  of  us :  for  in  him  we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our 
being ;  as  certain  even  of  your  own  poets  have  said.  For  we  are  also  his 
offspring." — Acts  xvii.  23-2S. 

"  By  faith  we  understand  that  the  worlds  were  produced  by  the  com- 
mand of  God,  so  that  the  things  which  are  seen  were  not  made  of  things 
which  did  appear." — Heb.  xi.  3. 

/^N  the  last  cited  passage,  Mac  knight,  whose  translation  has 
^^^  been  followed,  has  this  note :  "  By  revelation  we  understand 
that  the  worlds,  namely,  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  with  their  appur- 
tenances, '  were  brought  into  being  by  the  word  of  God  :  So  that 
the  things  which  are  seen  (the  worlds)  were  not  made  of  things 
which  did  appear '  before  they  were  made ; — that  is,  the  worlds 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  167 

which  we  see  were  not  made  of  matter  which  had  existed  from 
eternity,  but  of  matter  which  God  created  and  formed  into  the 
things  which  we  see  ;  and  having  formed  them,  he  placed  them 
in  the  beautiful  order  which  they  now  hold,  and  impressed  on 
them  the  motion  proper  to  each,  which  they  have  retained  ever 
since." 

"  It  is  as  easy  to  conceive  that  an  Almighty  Power  might  pro- 
duce a  thing  out  of  nothing,  and  to  make  that  exist  de  novo, 
which  did  not  exist  before,  as  to  conceive  the  world  to  have  had 
no  beginning,  but  to  have  existed  from  all  eternity." — Dr.  South. 

In  its  protracted  eflfort  for  a  satisfactory  explanation  of  the 
universe  of  which  itself  is  a  part  the  human  mind  has  exhibited 
its  sublimest  endeavor.  What  is,  whence  it  came,  how  it  came 
to  be  as  it  is,  for  what  end  it  exists,  and  whither  it  is  tending, 
are  inquiries  which  in  all  ages  have  exercised  the  powers  of  the 
most  gifted.  The  problem  of  being  in  its  many  phases  has  been 
indeed  the  problem  of  problems.  Is  it  possible  for  man  to  know 
whence  he  came,  for  what  purpose  he  exists,  what  his  des- 
tiny, and  the  destiny  of  the  universe  mirrored  to  his  soul  ?  Or 
is  he  hopelessly  shut  in  to  an  empty  echo  from  barriers  of 
impenetrable  darkness  which  tauntingly  hurl  back  his  inquiries  ? 
The  problem  of  our  existence  is  "  utterly  inscrutable,"  says 
modern  skepticism  ;  and  the  same  skepticism  hopelessly  bewails 
the  darkness  of  its  own  making.  I,ate  in  life,  the  gifted  David 
Hume,  the  prince  of  modern  skeptics,  said : 

"  I  am  appalled  at  the  forlorn  solitude  in  which  I  am  placed 
by  my  philosophy ;  and  I  begin  to  fancy  myself  in  the  most  de- 
plorable condition  imaginable,  environed  in  the  deepest  dark- 
ness ! " 

According  to  the  positive  philosophy,  as  taught  by  its  chief 
master  August  Comte,  it  is  vain  to  inquire  concerning  the  origin, 
the  purpose,  or  the  destiny  of  the  universe.  We  can  know  only 
facts,  it  tells  us,  and  to  attempt  to  draw  from  them  any  conclu- 
sion as  to  an  author  of  nature  or  its  destination  is  foolish,  as  ut- 


l68         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

terly  transcending  man's  powers  to  know.  In  the  language  of 
one  of  its  expounders:  "When  the  natural  philosopher  is  con- 
vinced that  the  essential  nature  of  things, — the  origin  and  desti- 
nation of  the  universe,  and  the  causes  of  phenomena, — are  insol- 
uble problems,  positive  science  begins.  Accepting  only  the 
results  of  experiment  and  observation,  the  mind  gives  over  the 
vain  search  after  absolute  notions  beyond  the  reach  of  either. 
While  positive  science,  thus  freed  from  impediments,  steadily 
advances,  carrying  conviction  to  man's  intellect,  that  same  in- 
tellect turns  away  from  metaphysical  speculation  ever  agitating 
questions  to  which  there  is  no  reply.  Every  thing  is  judged  by 
facts  and  results." 

But  man's  desire  to  know  whence  he  came,  and  why  he  is 
here,  and  whither  he  goes  will  not  down  at  any  such  bidding  of 
an  arbitrary  philosophy.  The  unquenchable  desire  for  an  ex- 
planation of  the  universe  about  him,  and  of  its  and  his  own  or- 
igin and  destiny,  heeds  no  demands  for  silence,  but  asserts  its 
claim,  as  a  most  veritable  and  potent  fact,  to  be  heard  by  every 
philosophy  that  claims  to  build  with  facts.  While  it  would  be 
quite  beyond  the  designed  limits  of  these  pages  to  enter  upon  a 
discussion  or  even  a  statement  of  the  various  atheistic  theories 
of  the  world,  it  is  well  to  note  that  Positivism,  Materialism,  Ag- 
nosticism, and  all  other  theories  which  deny  or  ignore  an  intelli- 
gent First  Cause,  and  thus  leave  man  without  a  divine  Father 
whose  love  and  guidance  he  may  trust,  do  necessarily  subvert 
the  foundation  of  our  hope  and  well-being,  and  invest  the  future 
with  painful  uncertainty  or  blank  despair.  Thomas  Carlyle, 
whose  "  grand,  rough  soul  "  "  saw  deep  into  the  heart  of  things," 
well  expressed,  in  his  rough  and  vigorous  style,  the  tendency  of 
every  system  of  cosmology  which  attempts  an  explanation  of 
the  universe  without  the  factor  of  a  superintending  omnipotent 
and  all-wise  Intelligence :  "  Ah,  it  is  a  sad  and  terrible  thing  to 
see  nigh  a  whole  generation  of  men  and  women  professing  to  be 
cultivated,  looking  around  in  a  purblind  fashion,  and  finding  no 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  169 

God  in  this  universe.  I  suppose  it  is  a  reaction  from  the  reign 
of  cant  and  hollow  pretense,  professing  to  believe  what  in  fact 
they  do  not  believe.  And  this  is  what  we  have  got  to.  All 
things  from  frog  spawn  ;  the  gospel  of  dirt  the  order  of  the  day. 
The  older  I  grow — and  I  now  stand  upon  the  brink  of  eternity, 
— the  more  comes  back  to  me  the  sentence  in  the  catechism 
which  I  learned  when  a  child,  and  the  fuller  and  deeper  its 
meaning  becomes,  '  What  is  the  great  end  of  man  ? — To  glorify 
God  and  enjoy  him  forever.'  No  gospel  of  dirt,  teaching  that 
men  have  descended  from  frogs  through  monkeys,  can  ever  set 
that  aside." 

In  this  teaching  of  the  catechism,  so  simple,  and  3^et  so  com- 
prehensive, implying  a  rational  explanation  of  man's  origin,  and 
stating  the  rational  end  for  which  he  exists,  is  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  social  and  civil  order,  the  basis  of  moral  law,  the  stimu- 
lus to  the  highest  endeavor  for  all  that  is  true  and  noble  and 
good,  and  the  charter  of  all  our  hopes  for  the  boundless  future  to 
which  we  go.  Cut  loose  from  this  mooring,  humanity  drifts 
aimless,  rudderless,  hopeless.  From  this  brief  attempt  to  con- 
trast the  gloomy  speculations  of  science  falsely  so  called  which 
professes  to  find  a  world  without  an  intelligent  author  or  ruler, 
with  the  cheerful  faith  that  the  worlds  were  framed  by  the  word 
of  God,  and  that 

"  The  hand  which  bears  creation  up 
Will  guard  his  children  well," 

let  us  seek  to  analyze  the  doctrine  of  creation  as  presented  in 
the  Confession,  and  supported  by  the  texts  cited  therewith.  We 
here  have,  then, 

I.  A  specific  act  of  absolute  creation. 

By  "  absolute  creation "  we  mean  the  bringing  into  being 
what  did  not  before  exist.  That  is  the  scriptural  account  of  the 
origin  of  the  universe,  or  the  biblical  cosmology.  As  logically 
defined,  "  creation  is  the  act  by  which  God  produced  out  of 
nothing  all  things  that  now  exist."     But  when   it  is   said  that 


170  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

God  made  all  things  out  of  nothing  {ex  nihilo),  it  is  not  meant 
that  "  nothing  "  is  an  entity,  a  material,  a  "  stuff"  out  of  which 
God  made  the  things  that  exist.  We  are  to  understand 
there  was  literal  creation  in  the  most  absolute  sense.  Once  the 
universe  was  not,  did  not  exist,  as  to  the  substance  of  which  it 
is  composed,  and  as  to  the  form  the  universe  now  presents. 
Now  it  does  exist,  and  creation  is  that  act  of  divine  will  by 
which  the  universe  now  is.  Of  the  idea  of  transition  from  not 
existing  to  existing,  or  from  nothing  to  substance,  we  may  form 
a  clear  conception  ;  but  how  the  transition  is  efiected  by  a  fiat 
of  Infinite  Power,  utterly  transcends  human  understanding. 

The  doctrine  of  absolute  creation  as  stated  in  the  foregoing 
paragraph  is  clearly  taught  in  numerous  plain  passages  in  the 
Scriptures,  as  in  the  passages  heading  this  chapter.  It  is  a  doc- 
trine both  fundamental  and  peculiar  in  Christian  cosmology. 
Heathen  philosophy  teaches  the  eternity  of  matter,  and  if  it  ad- 
mits creation  in  any  sense,  as  some  of  the  ancient  philosophers 
did,  it  is  in  the  subordinate  sense  of  arranging,  or  constructing, 
the  cosmos  out  of  eternally  existent  material.  Likewise  is  the 
fact  of  absolute  creation  seemingly  implied  in  the  inspired  rep- 
resentations of  the  independence  and  sovereignty  of  God. 
Says  Dr.  A.  A.  Hodge  {Commentary  07i  the  Confessioii),  "  If  God 
be  not  the  creator  of  substance  ex  nihilo,  as  well  as  the  former 
of  worlds  and  things,  he  can  not  be  absolutely  sovereign  in 
his  decrees  or  in  his  works  of  creation,  providence,  or  grace. 
On  every  hand  he  would  be  limited  and  conditioned  by  the  self- 
existent  qualities  of  pre-existent  substances.  But  the  Scriptures 
always  represent  God  as  the  absolute  sovereign  and  proprietor 
of  all  things."  Rom.  xi.  36;  i  Cor.  viii.  6;  Col.  i.  16;  Rev.  iv. 
1 1 ;  Neh.  ix.  6. 

Again,  it  is  argued,  and  seemingly  with  very  great  force,  that 
the  elementary  substances  we  know  as  oxygen,  carbon,  nitrogen, 
and  the  rest,  do,  by  their  properties,  their  affinities,  and  other  re- 
lations they  sustain  to  the  composition  of  the  goodly  material 


CUMBERIvAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  171 

frame  built  out  of  their  combinations  in  definite  proportions, 
certainly  compel  us  to  believe  that  they  are  endowed  with  what 
Sir  John  Herschel  denominated  "  the  essential  character  of  a 
manufactured  articled  If  "  the  heavens  declare  the  glory  of 
God,  and  the  firmament  showeth  his  handiwork,"  then  must  the 
very  atoms,  which  are  so  constituted  and  endowed  as  to  rear  the 
wonderful  cosmos  of  forms  animate  and  inanimate,  have  come 
from  the  hand  of  Him  whose  power  and  wisdom  made  the  world 
as  it  is.  Thus  theologians  distinguish  what  they  call  creatio  prima, 
or  the  creation  of  the  substances  (whether  material  or  non-mate- 
rial) of  the  universe,  from  the  creatio  secunda,  or  the  distribution 
and  combination  of  these  substances  in  the  harmonious  system 
we  call  the  universe. 

That  such  has  been  in  all  ages  the  faith  of  the  Church  in  re- 
gard to  the  doctrine  of  creation  can  not  be  doubted.  The 
Apostles'  Creed,  as  given  in  a  preceding  chapter,  opens  with  the 
sublime  expression,  /  believe  i7i  God  the  Father  Almighty,  Maker 
of  heaven  and  earth.  Pearson,  in  his  admirable  exposition  of 
the  Creed,  tells  us  that  the  "  first  rules  of  faith  "  thus  expressed 
the  doctrine  of  creation,  and  that  "  the  most  ancient  creeds  had 
either  instead  of  these  words,  or  together  with  them,  the  7naker 
of  all  things  visible  and  invisible. ''  So  the  Nicene  Creed;  and 
the  Constantinopolitan  says,  "  I  believe  in  one  God  the  Father 
Almighty,  Maker  of  heaven  arid  earth,  ayid  of  all  things  visible 
and  invisible'''  According  to  Pearson,  who  justly  observes  that 
''  the  work  of  creation  properly  followeth  the  attribute  of  om- 
nipotence, the  phrase,  '  maker  of  heaven  and  earth,'  was  not  at 
the  first  a  part  of  the  Apostles'  Creed,  and  that  it  was  probably 
not  added  until  as  late  as  the  eighth  century,  when  in  the  West- 
ern Confessions  we  read  :  Credo  i7i  Deuni  Patrem  Omnipotentem, 
Creator  em  cceli  et  terrcB.^'' 

"  The  Hebrew  word  translated  '  to  create,'  and  used  by  Moses 
to  reveal  the  fact  that  God  created  the  world,  is  the  verj^  best  af- 
forded b)'  an}'  human  language  anterior  to  revelation  to  express 


172  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

the  idea  of  absolute  making.  It  is  introduced  at  the  beginning 
of  an  account  of  the  genesis  of  the  heavens  and  of  the  earth. 
In  the  beginning — in  the  absolute  beginning — God  created  all 
things  (heaven  and  earth).  After  that  there  was  chaos,  and  sub- 
sequently the  Spirit  of  God,  brooding  over  the  deep,  brought 
the  ordered  world  into  being.  The  Creation  came  before  chaos, 
as  chaos  came  before  the  bringing  of  things  into  their  present 
form.  Therefore  the  substance  of  things  must  have  had  a  be- 
ginning, as  well  as  their  present  forms."  So  saj's  Dr.  Hodge, 
and  other  Hebrew  scholars  agree  with  him  as  to  the  significance 
of  the  word  translated  "  to  create." 

The  doctrine  of  creation,  as  held  by  theologians,  admits  the 
existence  of  only  one  eternal  being,  and  that  being  a  pure  spirit, 
who  is  "at  once  .substance  and  cause,  intelligence  and  power, 
absolutely  free,  and  infinitely  good."  As  alternatives  to  the 
Christian  idea  of  creation  we  have  (i)  dualism,  which  asserts  the 
eternal  existence  of  matter,  while  it  admits  God  as  creator  in  the 
secondary  sense,  as  when  it  is  said  God  formed  man  of  the  dust 
of  the  earth ;  and  (2)  pantheism,  which  in  reality  means  that 
matter,  or  the  substance  of  which  all  beings  consist,  is  the  sole 
necessary  and  self-existent  eternal  being.  It  identifies  God  and 
the  universe ;  while  the  biblical  doctrine  clearl}^  teaches  that 
God  and  the  universe  are  essentially  distinct — the  former  a 
spirit  self-existent,  infinite,  eternal,  omnipotent ;  the  latter  de- 
pendent, finite,  created  being.  If  the  reasons  previou.sly  stated 
for  rejecting  the  idea  of  two  eternal  beings  are  conclusive,  there 
remains  the  idea  of  the  eternity  of  the  universe,  as  the  sole 
alternative  of  the  theological  doctrine  of  creation  by  an  Om- 
nipotent Intelligence.  Has  the  world  always  existed  ?  If 
not,  since  it  can  not  have  been  self-caused,  and  must  have  had 
some  cause,  it  must  have  been  created  by  a  being  other  than 
itself. 

Such,  in  its  simplest  and  final  form,  is  the  point  at  issue 
between  the  atheistic  and  the  theistic  systems  of  philosophy — a 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  173 

problem  of  immense  significance  in  its  practical  relation  to  the 
peace  and  order  of  society  and  to  the  highest  hopes  of  humanity. 

Manifestly,  the  demand  upon  philosophy  is,  to  determine 
whether  the  universe,  so  far  as  man  can  know  it,  exhibits  char- 
acteristics which  prove  that  it  must  have  had  a  beginning ;  or 
whether  it  presents  the  characteristics  of  that  which  is  self- 
existent  and,  therefore,  eternal.  The  great  battle  of  to-day  on 
the  field  of  thought  is  between  the  Christian  and  the  Material- 
istic philosophy.  Though  a  very  old,  old  philosophy,  Ma- 
terialism is  none  the  less  a  dangerous  foe  in  the  nineteenth  cent- 
ury. Its  aim  through  all  the  ages  has  been,  as  it  is  to-day,  to 
drive  the  Creator  from  his  universe,  and  subject  all  the  phenom- 
ena of  mind  to  such  necessitated  causation  as  sweeps  away  all 
rational  basis  of  responsibilitj'-,  and  so  to  open  the  flood-gates  of 
vice.  Never,  perhaps,  more  than  to-day,  was  there  demand  that 
Christian  scholars  wield  their  learning  and  talents  to  embank 
against  the  incoming  tide  of  materialistic  thought;  for  "  if  the 
foundations  be  destroyed,  what  can  the  righteous  do?  " 

Over  against  the  Christian  philosophy,  which  interprets  the 
universe  as  being  in  all  its  parts,  both  material  and  spiritual,  the 
product  of  an  Infinite  and  Absolute  Intelligence,  from  whose  fiat 
it  has  arisen  through  successive  creative  acts,  Atheistic  Material- 
ism, certainly  the  most  formidable  adversary  of  our  times,  to 
every  idea  essential  to  religious  orthodoxy,  constructs  the  uni- 
verse in  this  stjde :  * 

"  Hydrogen,  carbon,  oxygen,  etc.,  are  the  elements  at  present 
recognized  as  constituting  the  earth,  its  products,  its  inhabitants, 
and  its  atmosphere.  From  the  facts  thus  acquired,  we  draw  a 
conclusion  broad  enough  to  comprehend  all  the  partial  modifica- 
tions with  which  experience  may  make  us  acquainted.  The 
things  which  in  their  totality  are  expressed  by  the  word  uni- 
verse, are  formed  of  a  certain  number  of  known  substa?ices,  beyond 
which  there  is  nothing.  Simple  bodies,  combined  in  various  pro- 
portions have  received  and  will  retain  the  generic  name  of  mat- 


174         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

ter."  So  says  A.  Lefevre,  who  has  won  the  distinction  of  "  one 
of  the  strongest  advocates  of  materialism."  The  words  itali- 
cized suf&ce  to  indicate  the  immeasurable  assumption  of  which 
the  atheistic  philosophy  is  capable,  which  is,  in  fact,  a  necessary 
postulate  of  the  whole  system.  It  simply  says,  "  What  I  per- 
ceive by  the  senses — that  is  all ;  in  this  universe  stretching  on 
all  sides  into  unfathomed  depths  of  space,  there  is,  I  am  sure, 
nothing  but  this  matter  which  I  discern  by  sensation."  Can  the 
most  dogmatic  theological  faith  exceed  such  credulity?  Far 
back  in  the  time  of  I^eucippus,  its  accredited  founder,  and  as 
Democritus  taught  it,  and  as  Lucretius  later  expounded  it,  this 
theory  ascribed  the  universe  to  a  fortuitous  combination  of  an 
infinity  of  atoms  eternally  dashing  about  in  infinite  space,  and 
coming  finally  to  the  juxtaposition  which  constitutes  the  world 
as  it  is.  The  universe  had,  in  fact,  no  beginning,  it  assures  us ; 
and  it  will  have  no  end,  for  what  we  now  call  the  universe  is  but 
a  phase  of  an  eternal  series  of  transformations.  As  formulated 
by  another,  the  theory  says : 

"Matter  is  eternal.  Matter  consists  ultimately  of  atoms, 
which  were  at  first  distributed  through  empty  space.  The  atoms 
are  homogeneous  in  quality,  but  heterogeneous  in  form ;  motion 
is  the  eternal  and  necessary  consequence  of  the  original  variety 
of  atoms  in  the  vacuum ;  the  atoms  are  impenetrable,  and, 
therefore,  offer  resistance  to  one  another.  All  existing  forms — 
the  stars,  the  planets,  the  earth,  plants,  animals,  mind  itself — 
evolved  from  these  atoms.  The  process  of  evolution  began  by 
the  atoms  striking  together,  and  the  lateral  motions  and  whirl- 
ings thus  produced  were  the  beginnings  of  the  worlds ;  the  va- 
rieties of  things  depend  on  the  variety  of  their  constituent 
atoms.  The  first  cause  of  all  existence  is  necessity,  that  is,  the 
necessary  succession  of  cause  and  effect." 

So  Strauss,  distinguishing  "  world  "  in  the  relative  sense,  as 
meaning  a  body  or  system  of  related  bodies,  from  world  in  the 
sense   of  the  universe,    or    totality   of  what   is,    tells   us   that 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  175 

"  though  it  is  true  that  every  world  (in  the  former  sense)  has  its 
limitation  in  space  as  it  has  its  beginning  and  end  in  time,  yet 
the  universe  spreads  itself  forth  and  maintains  its  continuity 
inimitably,  alike  through  all  space  and  all  time."  "  Conse- 
quently," as  he  further  explains,  "  not  only  our  earth,  but  our 
solar  system  also,  and  every  other  part  of  the  totality  of  the 
universe,  has  at  one  period  been  what  it  no  longer  is  (in  this 
sort  did  not  exist  at  all),  and  will  one  day  cease  to  be  as  it  now 
is."  But  of  the  "  universe  "  he  afl&rms  "  there  never  was  a  time 
when  it  was  not,  a  time  when  there  was  in  it  no  distinction  of 
celestial  bodies,  no  life,  no  reason.  All  this,  if  it  was  not  in  one 
part,  was  in  another  part,  and  had  ceased  to  be  in  a  third  part  ; 
here  it  was  coming  into  being,  there  it  was  in  full  subsistence, 
in  a  third  place  it  was  passing  away ;  the  universe  is  an  infinite 
complex  of  worlds  in  all  the  stadia  of  origin  and  transition,  and 
because  of  this  eternal  revolution  and  alternation  preserv^es  it- 
self in  eternal,  absolute  fullness  of  life."  Into  the  eternally 
self-existent  universe,  Strauss  finds  an  easy  method  of  introduc- 
ing life  at  such  stages  of  the  ever-shifting  cosmos  as  favor  it, 
declaring  that  its  appearance  "  does  not  involve  the  creation  of 
something  new,  but  only  the  bringing  of  existent  forms  of  mat- 
ter and  forces  into  another  species  of  combination  and  movement, 
for  which  a  sufficient  occasion  maj^  be  found  in  the  conditions  of 
primeval  time  so  totally  diverse  from  those  of  the  present,  the 
wholly  difierent  temperature,  and  of  atmospheric  composition, 
and  similar  causes." 

We  propose  no  analysis  or  refutation  of  this  theory  of  the 
universe  which  dispenses  with  Intelligent  Creative  Power,  our 
aim  being  only  to  contrast  the  atheistic  with  the  theistic  concep- 
tion of  the  universe.  It  is  in  place  to  note  that  modern  atheistic 
theories  have  little  or  nothing  new  to  offer.  The  Roman  poet 
Lucretius,  assuming  "  matter  ample  "  and  endowed  with  "  causal 
force,"  constructed  the  universe  as  readily  as  the  materialists  of 
the  present  day : 


176  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

"  If  then  you  '11  understand,  j'ou  '11  plainly  see 
How  the  vast  mass  of  matter,  Nature  free 
From  the  proud  care  of  the  meddling  Deity, 
Doth  work  by  her  own  private  strength,  and  move 
Without  the  trouble  of  the  powers  above. 
For,  matter  given,  space  and  causal  force, 
Formation  follows  as  a  thing  of  course." 

As  noticed  by  Cocker  in  his  admirable  work,  Christianity  and 
Greek  Philosophy,  Lucretius  felt  the  necessity  of  something  more 
than  the  "  space  and  matter"  admitted  by  the  Epicurean  system, 
in  order  to  construct  the  universe.  To  obtain  this  "  something  " 
he  admits  freedom  of  action  in  the  human  will,  and  then  argues 
that  since  man,  who  is  only  an  aggregate  of  atoms,  exhibits 
spontaneous  movement,  such  movement  must  be  an  attribute  of 
the  atoms  of  which  he  is  composed.  The  atoms  being  liberated, 
by  this  begging  of  the  question,  from  the  necessity  of  moving 
eternally  in  straight  lines,  the  universe  arises  thus  :  By  a  slight 
voluntary  deflection  from  the  straight  line  atoms  (distributed 
through  infinite  space)  are  now  brought  into  contact  with  each 
other ;  "  they  strike  against  each  other,  and  bj^  the  percussion 
new  movements  and  new  complications  arise" — "movements 
from  high  to  low,  from  low  to  high,  and  horizontal  movements 
to  and  fro."  The  atoms  "jostling  about  of  their  own  accord,  in 
infinite  modes,  were  often  brought  together  confusedly,  irreg- 
ularly, and  to  no  purpose,  but  at  length  the}'  successfully  co- 
alesced ;  at  least  such  of  them  as  were  thrown  together  suddenly 
became,  in  succession,  the  beginnings  of  great  things — as  earth, 
and  air,  and  sea,  and  heaven." — {Cocker's  Christianity  and  Greek 
Philosophy, J)p.  436-7.) 

Philosophers  of  the  Epicurean  sect  encountered  Paul  at 
Athens.  The  practical  side  of  the  Epicurean  creed  is  expressed 
in  I  Cor.  xv.  22 — "  Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we  die." 
The  founder  of  the  sect,  born  B.C.  432,  was  a  practical  atheist, 
admitting  the  existence  of  gods  to  save  himself  from  public 
censure,  but  relegating  them  to  a  sphere  beyond  all  concern 


CUMBERIyAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  1 77 

about  human  affairs.  Hence,  the  Epicureans  denied  Provi- 
dence, accountabilit)',  and  the  possibility  of  any  life  beyond  the 
present  mortal  state ;  and  so  held  that  the  part  of  wisdom  is  to 
enjoy  to  the  greatest  possible  extent  whatever  pleasure  this 
world  may  afford,  seeing  there  is  for  man  no  other.  Modern 
materialistic  writers  have  advanced  nothing  in  support  of  their 
theory  beyond  what  Epicurus  presented ;  and  the  tendency  of 
the  system  is  to-day  what  it  was  two  thousand  years  ago. 
Though  somewhat  aside  from  the  main  line  of  discussion,  the 
following  excellent  paragraph  (from  Cocker's  work)  is  cited  as 
justly  characterizing  the  tendency  of  materialistic  philosophy, 
and  illustrative  of  the  fact  that  a  theory  of  the  universe  must 
take  a  most  important  bearing  on  man's  practical  life  in  all  that 
pertains  to  his  well-being : 

"  The  system  of  Epicurus  is  thus  a  system  of  pure  material- 
ism  His  openly  avowed  design   is  to  deliver  men  from 

the  fear  of  death,  and  rid  them  of  all  apprehension  of  a  future 
retribution.  '  Did  men  but  know  that  there  was  a  fixed  limit  to 
their  woes,  they  would  be  able,  in  some  measure,  to  defy  the 
religious  fictions  and  menaces  of  the  poets ;  but  now,  since  we 
must  fear  eternal  punishment  at  death,  there  is  no  mode,  no 
means  of  resisting  them.'  To  emancipate  men  from  'these  ter- 
rors of  the  mind,'  they  must  be  taught  that  the  soul  is  mortal, 
and  dissolves  with  the  body — that  '  death  is  nothing  to  us,  for 
that  which  is  dissolved  is  devoid  of  sensation,  and  that  which  is 
devoid  of  sensation  is  nothing  to  us.'  " 

"  It  is  evident  that  such  a  system  of  philosophy  outrages  the 
purest  and  noblest  sentiments  of  humanity,  and  in  fact  condemns 
itself.  It  was  born  of  selfishness  and  social  degeneracy,  and 
could  perpetuate  itself  only  in  an  age  of  corruption,  because  it 
inculcated  the  lawfulness  of  sensuality  and  the  impunity  of 
justice.  Its  existence  at  this  precise  period  in  Grecian  history 
forcibly  illustrates  the  truth  that  atheism  is  a  disease  of  the 
heart  rather  than  of  the  head.    It  seeks  to  set  man  free  to  follow 


178         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

his  own  inclinations,  by  ridding  him  of  all  faith  in  a  Divinity  and 
in  an  immortal  life,  and  thus  exonerating  him  from  all  account- 
ability and  all  future  retribution.  But  it  failed  to  perceive  that, 
in  the  most  effectual  manner,  it  annihilated  all  real  liberty,  and 
ail  true  nobleness,  and  made  of  man  an  abject  slave." 

The  more  fully  and  carefully  we  reflect  upon  the  subject,  the 
more  clearly  must  we  see  that  in  the  theistic  conception  of  the 
universe  must  be  found  the  basis  of  any  system  of  morals  ade- 
quate to  the  regulation  of  man's  behavior,  and  to  his  progress 
in  what  elevates,  refines,  and  happifies.  To  believe,  as  atheistic 
materialism  teaches,  that  man  is  matter  only,  and  that  after  a 
few  fleeting  years  he  is  destined  to  inevitable  return  to  uncon- 
sciousness as  but  a  drop  of  the  eternal  uncaused  ocean  of  matter 
on  whose  surface  he  was  cast  for  a  moment,  is  to  believe  that 
we  are  in  a  world  that  has  no  moral  governor,  which  exists  with- 
out a  purpose,  and  into  which  we  ourselves,  as  ephemeral  creat- 
ures, have  come  under  conditions  that  utterly  exclude  the  con- 
ception of  any  moral  end  for  which  we  exist.  It  is  no  less  a 
necessity  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  than  a  fact  practically  dem- 
onstrated again  and  again,  that  the  tendency  of  the  atheistic 
conception  of  the  world  is  to  the  regression,  the  degradation, 
the  destruction  of  the  race.  It  destroys  incentive  to  self-im- 
provement, leaves  no  stimulus  to  effort  for  the  common  weal, 
and  excludes  all  hope  of  a  better  day  through  the  subjection  of 
human  wills  to  a  divine  will  that  orders  all  things  for  harmony, 
righteousness,  and  well-being. 

Over  against  the  Epicurean  atheism,  we  have  the  Stoic  philos- 
ophy acknowledging  God,  asserting  creation  (but  in  a  sense  that 
practically  indentifies  the  Creator  and  the  universe),  and  placing 
man's  well-being  in  conformity  to  the  will  of  his  Creator.  The 
Stoic  taught,  as  Diogenes  lyaertiuS'  tells  us  in  his  Lives  of  the  Phi- 
losophers, that  "God  is  a  living  being,  immortal,  rational,  perfect, 
and  intellectual  in  his  happiness,  unsusceptible  of  any  kind  of 
evil ;  having  a  foreknowledge  of  the  world,  and  of  all  that  is  in 


CUMBERI.AND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  i^^ 

the  world."  As  Aurelius  asserts,  "God  made  men  to  this  end 
that  they  might  be  happy ;  as  becomes  his  fatherly  care  of  us, 
he  placed  our  good  and  our  evil  in  those  things  which  are  in  our 
own  power."  As  I,aertius  asserts,  "  God  is  a  being  of  a  certain 
quality,  having  for  his  peculiar  manifestations  universal  sub- 
stance. He  is  a  being  imperishable,  who  never  had  any  genera- 
tion, being  the  maker  of  the  arrangement  and  the  order  we  see ; 
who  at  certain  periods  of  time  absorbs  all  substance  into  himself, 
and  then  reproduces  it  frotn  himself ^ 

The  foregoing  doctrines  of  the  Stoics  are  an  attempt  at  com- 
bining the  idea  of  creation  with  that  of  the  eternity  of  the  sub- 
stance of  the  universe,  the  doctrine  of  I^aertius  seeming  to 
identify  the  substance  of  the  universe  with  that  of  the  Creator. 
The  idea  of  the  eternity  of  matter  is  discernible  as  the  one  line 
of  thought  holding  unbroken  through  the  almost  endless  jarring 
systems  of  heathen  philosophy  regarding  the  nature  and  origin 
of  the  visible  universe.  The  fundamental  assumptions  of  the 
heathen  philosophy  is  that  out  of  nothing  nothing  can  come, 
and  that  whatever  is  can  not  return  to  nothing,  or  must  con- 
tinue to  exist.  So  the  Brahmins  teach  to-day :  "  The  ignorant 
assert  that  the  universe,  in  the  beginning,  did  not  exist  in  its 
author,  and  that  it  was  created  out  of  nothing.  O  3'e,  whose 
hearts  are  pure,  how  could  something  arise  out  of  nothing?" 
This  conception  of  the  existence  of  the  universe  in  its  author, 
and  of  a  subsequent  production  from  his  substance,  seems  to 
indicate  an  Indian  origin  of  the  Stoic  philosophy,  which,  like 
that  of  India,  is  essentially  pantheistic.  From  Greek  philoso- 
phy Jewish  theologians  and  Christian  fathers  borrowed  the  same 
ideas  of  the  impossibility  of  creation  out  of  nothing,  and  of  the 
necessary  eternity  of  the  substance  of  things.  Accordingly  the 
Book  of  Wisdom  (chap.  xi.  17)  asserts  that  "  the  almighty  hand 
of  the  Lord  created  the  world  out  of  unfashioned  matter." 
Justin  Martyr  affirms  that  such  was  the  general  belief  of  his 
day,  "  For,"  says  he,  "  that  the  word  of  God  formed  the  world 


l8o  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

out  of  unfashioned  matter,  Moses  distinctly  asserts,  Plato  and  his 
adherents  maintain,  and  ourselves  have  been  taught  to  believe." 

A  profound  thinker  of  the  early  part  of  the  current  century, 
distinguished  alike  as  a  scientist  and  a  biblical  critic,  speaking 
of  the  attempt  of  the  Christian  fathers  to  harmonize  Platonism 
and  the  doctrine  of  creation  as  taught  in  Genesis,  declares  that 
"  the  text  of  Moses,  when  accurately  examined,  will  be  found  to 
lead  us  to  a  very  different  conclusion,"  as  asserting  in  the  first 
and  second  verses,  "  first,  an  absolute  creation  of  the  heaven  and 
the  earth,  which,  we  are  expresslj^  told,  took  place  foremost,  or  in 
the  beginning ;  next,  the  condition  of  the  earth,  when  it  was 
thus  primarily  created,  was  amorphous  and  waste,  or  in  the 
words  of  the  text,  *  without  form  and  void ; '  and,  thirdly,  the 
earliest  creative  effort  to  reduce  it  from  this  shapeless  and  void 
or  waste  condition  into  a  state  of  order  and  productiveness — the 
Spirit  of  God  moved  upon  the  face  of  the  waters."  The  same 
critic  observes  that  while  the  word  rendered  "  created,"  in  the 
opening  of  Genesis,  is  frequently  used  in  the  Scriptures  to 
denote  the  production  of  something  out  of  material  already 
existing,  "we  have  sufficient  proof  that  it  was  also  understood 
of  old  to  import  emphatically,  like  our  own  word  '  create,'  an 
absolute  formation  out  of  nothing."  "  Maimonides,  expressly 
tells  us,"  he  affirms,  "  that  it  was  thus  understood  in  the  passage 
before  us  (Gen.  i.  i)  as  well  as  in  all  others  that  have  a  reference 
to  it,  by  the  ancient  Hebrews ;  while  Origen  affirms  that  such 
was  its  import  among  many  of  the  Christian  fathers,  whatever 
might  be  the  opinion  of  the  rest,  and  forcibly  objects  to  the 
passage  quoted  from  the  Book  of  Wisdom,  as  a  book  not 
admitted  into  the  established  canon  of  Scripture." 

To  the  theory  of  the  eternity  of  matter  as  unproduced  self- 
existent  substance  of  the  universe,  which  substance  the  atheistic 
materialist  declares  the  sole  substance  known  to  us;  and  the 
theory  of  the  emanation  of  the  universe  from  the  substance  of 
the  Creator,  which,  in  its  boldest  and  baldest  form  teaches  that 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  i8l 

"  the  universe  is  the  Creator,  proceeds  from  the  Creator,  exists 
in  him,  and  returns  into  him,  "  we  may  add  that  of  idealism, 
which  holds  to  the  non-existence  of  a  material  world,  or,  in 
other  words,  that  pure  spirit  is  the  only  entity,  the  ideas  of 
which  spirit  have  no  outward  and  material  entities  correspond- 
ing to  them.  Of  this  school  in  modern  times  were  Bishop  Berke- 
ley, characterized  as  "  a  man  in  whom  every  virtue  dwelt,"  and 
David  Hume,  worthy  of  his  designation  of  "  his  prince  of  skep- 
tics." Berkeley's  fundamental  assumption  is  that  "  the  various 
sensations,  or  ideas,  imprinted  on  the  sense,  can  not  exist  other- 
wise than  in  the  mind  perceiving  them."  All  our  sensations 
can  be  accounted  for,  Berkeley  held,  as  rationally  on  the  suppo- 
sition of  some  kind  of  force  operating  from  without  upon  the 
mind,  as  on  the  supposition  of  the  existence  of  an  entity  that 
we  call  matter,  and  so  referred  all  our  modifications  of  con- 
sciousness to  the  will  of  God  as  the  source  of  the  force  produc- 
ing them.  Hume  advanced  a  step  farther,  arguing  that  if  it  be 
unnecessary  to  suppose  an  external  material  entity  as  the  basis 
of  the  phenomena  of  sensation,  it  is  equally  unnecessary  to  infer 
the  existence  of  a  hidden  entity  called  mind,  since  all  we  can 
know  by  inward  experience  are  the  fleeting  states  of  the  con- 
sciousness. And  so,  Hume  argued,  of  the  nature  of  things  we 
know  absolutely  nothing  at  all,  thus  carrying  idealism  to  the 
extreme  of  a  complete  agnosticism.  It  might  on  first  thought 
be  supposed  that  a  theory  so  remote  from  and  contradictory  to 
the  common  sense  of  mankind,  as  is  the  idealistic  philosophy, 
could  exert  but  little  influence  upon  the  public  mind,  but, 
wielded  by  so  acute  a  reasoner  as  Hume,  it  was  the  means  of 
destroying  confidence  in  the  ordinary  grounds  of  belief  to  such 
a  degree  as  to  threaten  the  foundations  of  social  and  civil  order ; 
and  Frederick  Schlegel,  a  German  student  of  philosophical 
questions,  declared  that  "  since  the  time  of  Hume,  nothing  more 
has  been  attempted  in  England  than  to  erect  all  sorts  of  bul- 
warks against  the  practical  influence  of  his  destructive  skepti- 


152  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

cism,  and  to  maintain,  by  various  substitutes  and  aids,  the  pile 
of  moral  principle  uncorrupted  and  entire." 

Without  design  of  explaining  or  even  of  naming  the  varied 
philosophical  theories  which  attempt  a  solution  of  the  problem 
of  the  origin  of  the  universe,  a  few  references  have  been  made 
rather  to  suggest  and  to  insist  that,  of  all  the  theories  proposed, 
not  one  can  satisfy  the  demands  of  reason  as  to  this  fundamental 
question  of  philosophy.  Modern  systems  are  practically  but 
repetitions  of  those  known  thousands  of  years  ago.  ^schylus, 
who  declared  that  "  Zeus  is  earth,  air,  heaven,  and  altogether 
all,"  was  as  intelligent  a  pantheist  as  Spinoza,*  according  to 
whom  there  is  one  infinite  substance,  and  only  one,  and  as  infi- 
nite is  divine,  while  man  and  other  finite  beings  are  parts  of  this 
one  infinite  substance.  The  materialism  of  the  nineteenth  cent- 
ury, as  an  explanation  of  the  universe,  is  no  more  satisfactory 
than  that  of  the  old  Epicureans.  For  the  most  part  these  mul- 
titudinous systems,  as  did  the  kine  of  the  vision  of  Egypt's 
king,  devour  one  another,  so  that  we  may  well  take  up  the 
inquir}"  of  the  author  of  a  Comparative  History  of  Philosophical 
Systems:  "About  what,  then,  are  philosophers  agreed?  What 
single  point  have  they  placed  beyond  dispute  ?  "  Of  many  of 
these  systems  we  may  saj'  what  a  critic  has  said  of  Kant's 
Critique  of  Pure  Reason:  "Announced  with  pomp,  received  with 
fanaticism,  disputed  about  with  fury,  after  having  overthrown 

*  Strictly  speaking,  pantlieism  is,  as  A.  M.  Fairbairne  observes,  a  mod- 
ern theorj-,  as  the  word  also  is  modern.  Spinoza  did  not  regard  the  tini- 
verse  as  God,  but,  rather,  "construed  the  world  through  God,"  and  hence 
his  system  was  "most  ethical  in  character,  and  sublimed  by  the  most 
exalted  religious  ideas."  His  system  is  manifestly  the  product  of  an 
eflFort,  as  is  the  Leibnitzian  idea  of  "  pre-established  harmony,"  to  get  rid 
of  the  seemingly  irreconcilable  contradictions  of  duality  as  recognized  in 
the  common  conceptions  of  mind  and  matter,  the  finite  and  the  infinite. 
Creator  and  creature.  But  the  author  of  the  article,  Spinoza^  in  the 
Library  of  Universal  Knowledge,  declares  Spinozism  to  teach  that  "  there 
is  no  real  difference  between  mind,  as  represented  by  God,  and  matter,  as 
represented  by  nature,"  and  that  "  God  neither  thinks  nor  creates." 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  1 83 

antagonistic  systems,  it  could  no  longer  support  itself  upon  its 
own  foundations,  and  has  produced  no  permanent  result." 
From  these  fruitless  and  discordant  efforts  at  the  solution  of  a 
problem  which  must  forever,  it  would  seem,  baffle  and  transcend 
the  powers  of  unaided  reason,  it  is  restful  to  faith  and  to  reason 
to  turn  to  the  sublime  declaration  of  the  word  which  proclaims 
that,  "In   the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven  and 

THE   earth." 

Notwithstanding  the  multiplicity  of  theories  of  the  nature 
and  origin  of  the  universe,  the  great  body  of  Christian  thought 
of  to-day  maintains  that  the  universe  is  finite,  dependent, 
created,  and  that  its  Author  is  a  Supreme  Intelligence,  inde- 
pendent of  the  creation  planned  for  a  benevolent  end  by  his 
infinite  wisdom  and  goodness,  and  realized  through  his  omnipo- 
tence; while  over  against  the  Christian  doctrine  stands  the 
atheistic  conception  of  the  eternity  of  the  substance  of  the 
universe,  and  of  an  endless  series  of  phenomena  attributable 
solely  to  the  nature  of  that  substance  and  its  inherent  forces. 
On  the  one  side  it  ma}^  be  said  that  there  are  no  known  proper- 
ties of  matter,  no  facts  apparent  in  the  universe,  no  laws  of 
human  reason  that  can  be  assumed  as  valid  premises  for  con- 
cluding that  the  world  is  eternal.  Herbert  Spencer  is  credited 
wdth  saying  that  "  the  eternity,  or  self-existence,  of  matter  is 
unthinkable,"  and  in  his  First  Principles  he  justly  observes  that 
"  the  assertion  that  the  universe  is  self-existent  does  not  really 
carry  us  a  step  beyond  the  cognition  of  its  present  existence ; 
and  so  leaves  us  with  a  mere  re-statement  of  the  mystery."  On 
the  other  hand,  no  principles  of  reason,  no  fact  in  the  world 
about  us,  no  properties  of  matter,  no  truths  of  science  require 
us  to  reject  the  theory  of  creation  in  the  biblical  sense,  as  being 
absurd  or  self-contradictory.  As  great  intellects  as  the  world 
has  known  have  accepted  the  Scriptural  idea  of  creation  as  the 
most  plausible  explanation  of  the  universe.  "So  far,  indeed, 
from  intimating  any  absurdity  in  the  idea  that  matter  may  be 


184  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

created  out  of  nothing  by  the  interposition  of  an  Almighty 
Intelligence,"  says  a  profound  thinker,  "reason  seems,  on  the 
contrary,  rather  to  point  out  to  us  the  possibility  of  an  equal 
creation  out  of  nothing  of  ten  thousand  other  substances,  of 
which  each  may  be  the  medium  of  life  and  happiness  to  infinite 
orders  of  being,  while  every  one  may,  at  the  same  time,  be  as 
distinct  from  every  other,  as  the  whole  may  be  from  matter,  or 
as  matter  is  from  what,  without  knowing  any  thing  further  of, 
we  commonly  denominate  spirit." 

So  far  as  it  lies  open  to  our  knowledge,  the  universe  is  full  of 
what  we  must  regard  the  products  of  intelligence,  which  fact 
necessitates  the  admission  of  a  Creator  and  of  creation  in  some 
sense  of  the  term.  From  the  wonderfully  endowed  invisible 
atoms,  with  their  affinities  in  definite  and  multiple  proportions, 
up  to  vast  globes  swinging  around  vaster  centers  of  heat  and 
light  by  virtue  of  which  they  are  abodes  of  life  and  activity,  in 
all  parts  the  universe  plainly  exhibits  itself  to  us  as  a  plan 
executed  in  view  of  a  foreseen  end.  Between  the  all-pervading 
ether  and  the  eye,  between  the  air  and  the  ear,  and  in  thousands 
of  other  instances  there  are  correlations  that  can  not  be  ration- 
ally interpreted  except  as  they  are  referred  to  creative  intelli- 
gence that  designed  the  human  body  as  an  instrument  by  which 
the  mind  of  man  is  to  know,  enjoy,  and  use  the  world  about 
him.  Professor  Pritchard,  a  naturalist  of  the  highest  reputa- 
tion, declares:  "  From  what  I  know  through  my  own  specialty, 
both  from  geometry  and  experiment,  of  the  structure  of  the 
lenses  of  the  human  eye,  I  do  not  believe  that  any  amount  of 
evolution  extending  through  any  amount  of  time,  could  have 
issued  in  the  production  of  that  most  beautiful  and  compHcated 
instrument,  the  human  eye.  The  most  perfect,  and  at  the  same 
time  the  most  difficult,  optical  contrivance  known  is  the  pow- 
erful achromatic  object-glass  of  a  microscope ;  its  structure  is 
the  long  unhoped-for  result  of  the  ingenuity  of  many  powerful 
minds,  yet  in  complexity  and  in  perfection   it  falls  infinitely 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  185 

below  the  structure  of  the  eye.  Disarrange  any  one  of  the 
curvatures  of  the  many  surfaces,  or  distances,  or  densities  of  the 
latter;  or  worse,  disarrange  its  incomprehensible  self-adaptive 
powers,  the  like  of  which  is  possessed  by  the  handiwork  of 
nothing  human,  and  all  the  opticians  in  the  world  could  not 
tell  you  what  is  the  correlative  alteration  necessary  to  repair  it, 
and,  still  less,  to  improve  it  as  a  natural  selection  is  presumed 
to  imply."  But  if  it  be  granted  that  "evolution"  did  issue  in 
the  production  of  the  eye,  and  that  "  natural  selection  "  is  a 
force  under  which  the  evolution  went  forward,  it  still  seems  im- 
possible to  evade  the  conviction  that  through  the  method  and 
the  force  an  intelligence  was  working  out  an  ideal  designed  to 
enable  man  to  look  upon  the  universe  that  spreads  around  him. 
In  the  argument  for  creative  wisdom  and  power,  method  of  for- 
mations is  nothing,  design  is  every  thing.  It  is  not  more  impos- 
sible to  believe  that  human  hands  and  tools  and  mechanical 
principles  and  forces  could  have  produced  a  steamship  without 
mind  having  conceived  the  ideal,  and  guided  the  hands  in  the 
use  of  the  tools,  than  it  is  to  believe  that  the  world  about  us, 
filled  on  all  sides  with  admirable  adaptations,  could  have  re- 
sulted from  any  unintelligent  and  unconscious  forces,  without 
mind  which  planned  the  wondrous  whole  and  guided  the  forces 
which  worked  it  out  in  this  goodly  frame. 

Scarcely  less  perplexing  than  the  problem  of  the  origin  and 
the  nature  of  the  universe  is  that  of  the  Creator's  relation  to  the 
universe,  those  who  admit  a  Creator  differing  widel)'-  in  their 
views  in  respect  to  the  latter  point.  One  school  of  ancient  phi- 
losophers excluded  their  gods  from  participation  in  the  produc- 
tion and  the  management  of  the  visible  universe,  leaving  them 
to  undisturbed  blessedness  in  their  empyrean  abode.  Thus, 
Lucretius,  in  his  marvelous  poem,  depicts  an  atheistic  world, 
though  declared  to  have  been  himself  "  perhaps  more  profoundly 
religious  in  spirit  than  any  other  Roman  that  ever  lived,  save  Au- 
gustine."    This  error  of  theism  in  conceiving  God  as  outside  of 


1 86         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

a  universe  under  the  sway  of  unconscious  material  forces,  is  the 
source,  as  Mr.  Fiske  asserts  in  his  monogram  on  The  Idea  of 
God  as  Affected  by  Moder?i  Knowledge,  of  ancient  atheism  ;  and 
■"  we  shall  find  the  cause  of  modern  atheism,"  the  same  author  as- 
serts, "  to  be  quite  similar."  Plato,  regarding  the  world  as 
essentially  vile,  "  separates  the  Creator  from  his  creation  by  the 
whole  breadth  of  infinitude,"  and  the  Gnostics,  adopting  Plato's 
doctrine  of  the  vileness  of  the  world,  accounted  for  the  action 
of  the  spiritual  God  on  the  material  universe  by  calling  in  me- 
diating aeons  partly  material  and  partly  spiritual,  or  else  sup- 
posed the  world  to  be  a  product  of  the  principle  of  evil.  This 
error  of  Augustine,  as  charged  by  Mr.  Fiske,  has  fastened  upon 
modern  thought,  "  his  intense  feeling  of  man's  wickedness 
dragging  him  irresistiblj'  "  to  extreme  views  in  this  direction. 
"The  following  passage  from  Mr.  Fiske's  Idea  of  God,  though 
containing  sentiments  we  can  not  adopt,  is  nevertheless  sugges- 
tive of  the  sources  of  diSiculties  that  have  perplexed  candid 
inquirers  for  the  truth  on  these  great  questions : 

"  In  his  (Augustine's)  views  of  original  sin  he  represents  hu- 
manity as  cut  oif  from  all  relationship  with  God,  who  is  depicted 
as  a  crudel)'  anthropomorphic  Being  far  removed  from  the  uni- 
verse and  accessible  only  through  the  mediating  ofiices  of  an 
organized  Church.  Compared  with  the  thoughts  of  the  Greek 
fathers  this  was  a  barbaric  conception,  but  it  was  suited  alike  to 
the  lower  grade  of  culture  in  western  Europe,  and  to  the  Latin 
political  genius,  which  in  the  decline  of  the  Empire  was  already 
occupying  itself  with  its  great  and  beneficent  work  of  construct- 
ing an  imperial  church.  For  these  reasons  the  Augustinian 
theology  prevailed,  and  in  the  Dark  Ages  it  became  so  deeply 
inwrought  into  the  innermost  fibers  of  Latin  Christianity  that  it 
remains  dominant  to-day  alike  in  Catholic  and  Protestant 
Churches.  With  few  exceptions  every  child  born  of  Christian 
parents  in  Europe  or  in  America  grows  up  with  an  idea  of  God, 
the  outlines  of  which  were  engraven  upon  men's  minds  by  Au- 


CUMBERIvAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  187 

gustine  fifteen  centuries  ago.  Nay,  more,  it  is  hardly  too  much 
to  say  that  three  fourths  of  the  body  of  doctrine  currently 
known  as  Christianity,  unwarranted  by  Scripture,  and  never 
dreamed  of  by  Christ  or  his  apostles,  first  took  coherent  shape 
in  the  writings  of  this  mighty  Roman,  who  was  separated  from 
the  apostolic  age  by  an  interval  of  time  like  that  which  sepa- 
rates us  from  the  invention  of  printing  and  the  discovery  of 
America.  The  idea  of  God  upon  which  all  this  Augustinian 
doctrine  is  based  is  the  idea  of  a  Being  actuated  by  human  pas- 
sions and  purposes,  localizable  in  space,  and  utterly  remote  from 
that  machine,  the  universe  in  which  we  live,  and  upon  which  he 
acts  intermittently  by  the  suspension  of  what  are  called  natural 
laws.  So  deeply  has  this  conception  penetrated  the  thought  of 
Christendom  that  we  continually  find  it  at  the  bottom  of  the 
speculations  and  arguments  of  men  who  would  warmly  repu- 
diate it  as  thus  stated  in  its  naked  outline.  It  dominates  the 
reasonings  alike  of  believers  and  skeptics,  of  theists  and  athe- 
ists; it  underlies  at  once  the  objections  raised  by  orthodoxy 
against  each  new  step  in  science,  and  the  assaults  made  by 
materialism  upon  every  religious  conception  of  the  world ;  and 
thus  it  is  chiefly  responsible  for  that  complicated  misunder- 
standing which,  by  a  lamentable  confusion  of  thought,  is  com- 
monly called  '  the  conflict  between  science  and  religion.'  " 

Over  against  the  Augustinian  conception  of  God's  relation  to 
the  universe,  as  depicted  in  the  foregoing,  Mr.  Fiske  thus  pre- 
sents what  he  designates  as  Cosmic  Theism :  "  We  are  now  pre- 
pared to  see  that  the  theological  objection  urged  against  the 
Newtonian  and  Darwinian  theories  has  its  roots  in  that  imper- 
fect kind  of  theism  which  Augustine  did  so  much  to  fasten  upon 
the  Western  World.  Obviously  if  Leibnitz  and  Agassiz  had  been 
educated  in  that  higher  theism  shared  by  Clement  and  Athana- 
sius  in  ancient  times  with  Spinoza  and  Goethe  in  later  days — if 
they  had  been  accustomed  to  conceive  of  God  as  immanent  in 
the  universe  and  eternally  creative — then  the  argument  which 


1 88  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

they  urged  with  so  much  feeling  would  never  have  occurred  to 
them.  To  conceive  of  '  physical  forces  '  as  powers  of  which  the 
action  could  in  any  wise  be  '  substituted '  for  the  action  of  Deity 
would  in  such  case  have  been  absolutely  impossible.  .  .  .  The 
higher  or  Athanasian  theism  knows  nothing  of  secondary 
causes  in  a  world  where  every  event  flows  directly  from  the 
eternal  First  Cause.  It  knows  nothing  of  physical  forces  save 
as  immediate  manifestations  of  the  omnipresent  creative  power 
of  God.  .  .  .  Once  really  admit  the  conception  of  an  ever-present 
God,  without  whom  not  a  sparrow  falls  to  the  ground,  and  it 
becomes  self-evident  that  the  law  of  gravitation  is  but  an  ex- 
pression of  a  particular  mode  of  divine  action.  And  what  is 
thus  true  of  one  law  is  true  of  all  laws.  The  thinker  in  whose 
mind  divine  action  is  thus  identified  with  orderly  action,  and  to 
whom  a  reall}^  irregular  phenomenon  would  seem  like  a  mani- 
festation of  sheer  diabolism,  foresees  in  every  possible  extension 
of  knowledge  a  fresh  confirmation  of  his  faith  in  God.  To  him, 
no  part  of  the  universe  is  godless ;  .  .  .  .  and  each  act  of  scien- 
tific explanation  but  reveals  an  opening  through  which  shines 
the  glory  of  the  eternal  Majesty." 

In  his  efforts  to  look  beyond  mere  phenomena  and  secondary 
causes,  and  to  know  the  essence  underlying  phenomena,  and  to 
find  that  first  cause  through  which  all  phenomena  may  be  inter- 
preted as  a  unity,  man  is  influenced,  and  must  be  influenced,  by 
the  received  philosophy  of  each  particular  age.  In  this  age  of 
special  studies  there  are  "terrific  dangers,"  as  Joseph  Cook 
observes,  "of  a  fragmentary  view  of  God."  Error  upon  a 
question  so  fundamental  as  that  of  the  relation  of  the  Creator  to 
the  universe,  and  especially  of  his  relation  to  man  as  a  creature 
dependent,  rational,  and  a  subject  of  moral  law,  must  be  far- 
reaching  in  its  influence  as  a  vitiating  element.  While  Mr. 
Fiske,  in  accordance  with  the  best  thought  of  the  age,  discovers 
that  Mind  is  the  ultimate  fact,  the  primal  cause  which  affords  a 
rational  explanation  of  the  universe,  he  seems  to  us  to  so  dis- 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  1 89 

pense  with  secondary  causes  as  to  identify  God  and  nature,  and 
thus  to  have  gone  so  far  from  Augustine  as  to  land,  with 
Spinoza  and  Goethe,  in  absolute  pantheism.  His  theory  of  the 
divine  inwianence  implies  a  universe  without  God,  or  God  with- 
out a  universe.  The  personal  living  God  is  taken  away,  and  a 
deified  universe  is  substituted.  In  gravitation  and  other  imper- 
sonal forces  eternally  operating,  he  finds  the  only  thing  to  be 
recognized  as  the  will  of  God.  According  to  his  theory, 
"  Matter  is  but  the  generalized  name  we  give  to  those  modifica- 
tions which  we  refer  immediately  to  an  unknown  something 
outside  of  ourselves,"  while  "the  eternal  source  of  phenomena," 
ever  active,  "eternally  creating,"  is  the  "  Force,"  the  "  Reality," 
the  "  infinite  and  eternal  Power,"  the  "  Universal  L,ife,"  of  which 
universal  life  all  living  things  are  but  "specialized  forms,"  and 
these  "specialized  forms"  the  products  of  an  "evolution"  neces- 
sitated by  the  persistence  of  force,  and  operating  eternally  and 
everywhere,  through  which  evolution  man,  "  the  crown  and 
glory  of  the  universe  and  the  chief  object  of  divine  care,  yet 
still  the  lame  and  halting  creature,  loaded  with  a  brute  inher 
itance  of  original  sin,"  is  to  experience  ultimate  salvation 
"  through  ages  of  moral  discipline." 

"While  the  theory  of  creation,  and  of  the  Creator's  relation  to 
the  world,  thus  briefly  sketched  seems  to  us  open  to  voxy  grave 
objections,  especially  as  identifying  the  life  of  the  universe  with 
the  life  of  God,  and  thereby  making  all  creatures,  and  all  ac- 
tions whether  good  or  bad,  but  phenomena  of  the  one  divine  sea 
of  infinite  existence,  and,  seemingly  at  least,  necessarily  exclud- 
ing the  idea  of  human  responsibility,  Mr.  Fiske  is  certainly  to 
be  credited  with  having  produced  a  most  thoughtful  discussion 
of  "the  idea  of  God,  as  it  is  affected  by  modern  knowledge;" 
and  the  following  paragraph  from  his  work  is  herein  quoted, 
alike  for  its  intrinsic  excellence  and  from  a  desire  to  be  just  to 
its  author : 

"  The  infinite  and  eternal  Power  that  is  manifested  in  every 


IQO         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

pulsation  of  the  universe  is  none  other  than  the  living  God. 
We  may  exhaust  the  resources  of  metaphysics  in  debating  how 
far  his  nature  may  fitly  be  expressed  in  terms  applicable  to  the 
psychical  nature  of  Man ;  such  vain  attempts  will  only  serve  to 
show  we  are  dealing  with  a  theme  that  must  ever  transcend  our 
finite  powers  of  conception.  But  of  some  things  we  may  feel 
sure.  Humanity  is  not  a  mere  local  incident  in  an  endless  and 
aimless  series  of  cosmical  changes.  The  events  of  the  universe 
are  not  the  work  of  chance,  neither  are  they  the  outcome  of 
blind  necessity.  Practically  there  is  a  purpose  in  the  world 
whereof  it  is  our  highest  duty  to  learn  the  lesson,  however  well 
or  ill  we  may  fare  in  rendering  a  scientific  account  of  it.  When 
from  the  dawn  of  life  we  see  all  things  working  together  toward 
the  evolution  of  the  highest  spiritual  attributes  of  Man,  we 
know,  however  the  words  may  stumble  in  which  we  try  to  say 
it,  that  God  is  in  the  deepest  sense  a  moral  Being.  The  ever- 
lasting source  of  phenomena  is  none  other  than  the  infinite 
Power  that  makes  for  righteousness.  Thou  canst  not  by 
searching  find  him  out;  yet  put  thy  trust  in  him,  and 
against  thee  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail;  for  there  is 
neither  wisdom  nor  understanding  nor  counsel  against  the 
Eternal." 

We  have  dwelt  upon  this  phase  of  our  subject  because  of  the 
tendency  of  the  day,  notably  with  writers  of  one  scientific 
school,  toward  such  a  conception  of  divine  immanence  as  una- 
voidably leads  to  the  identification  of  God  and  nature,  and  thus 
utterly  takes  away  the  God  of  our  fathers  and  of  the  Bible.  If 
the  universe  be  but  an  "evolution  of  the  substance  of  God," 
and  the  "cosmical  forces"  are  all  the  "will  of  God"  of  which 
we  can  have  any  knowledge,  then  indeed  have  we  no  God  whom 
we  can  rationally  worship,  nor  is  there  a  divine  compassion  that 
cares  for  men.  Poets,  novelists,  and  mystics  have  tinged  our 
literature  with  the  pernicious  sentiment  which  identifies  the 
human  soul  with  what  they  choose  to  call  the  general  soul  of 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  191 

the  universe  or,  with  mystic  pietism,  the  Infinite  Spirit,  the  out- 
come of  which  is 

"  That  each,  who  seems  a  separate  whole. 
Should  move  his  rounds,  and,  fusing  all 
The  skirts  of  self  again,  should  fall 
Reinerging  in  the  general  soulT 

The  thoughtful  scientist  sees  that  this  visible  universe,  as 
transient  and  dependent  in  all  its  parts,  must  rest  upon  a  power 
back  of  itself,  not  less  really  and  certainly  than  the  steamer 
rests  upon  the  ocean's  bosom.  "  We  are  ever,"  says  Herbert 
Spencer,  "  in  the  presence  of  an  infinite  and  eternal  energy, 
from  which  all  things  proceed,  manifested  within  and  without 
us."  What  is  this  eternal  energy  of  the  philosopher  but  the 
power  of  the  living  God  whose  is  the  "  hand  which  bears  crea- 
tion up?"  The  conception  of  the  absolute  hmnanence  of  the 
Creator  in  the  universe,  as  it  is  taught  by  philosophers  of  the 
school  of  Mr.  Fiske,  is  but  a  step,  on  one  side,  from  rigid  pan- 
theism, and,  on  the  other,  from  blank  materialistic  atheism. 
We  have  elsewhere  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  doctrine 
of  universal,  unconditional  divine  decree  of  whatsoever  comes 
to  pass  is  essentially  pantheistic,  and  as  utterly  excludes  the 
ideas  of  freedom  of  will,  human  responsibility,  and  moral  gov- 
ernment, as  does  absolute  atheistic  necessity.  We  must  not 
exclude  God  from  his  universe,  nor  confound  him  with  the 
universe.  He  indeed  made  the  world  and  all  that  is  therein, 
impressing  matter  and  the  finite  mind,  alike  products  of  his 
power,  with  the  attributes  now  immanent  in  them.  These  forces 
of  matter  and  attributes  of  mind  are  as  God  willed  them  to  be ; 
but  to  confound  these  forces  and  attributes  with  the  will  of  God, 
is  virtually  to  substitute  for  the  God  of  the  Bible  an  impersonal 
unconscious  intelligence  working  in  the  universe.  God  indeed 
notes  the  fall  of  the  sparrow,  but  a  sparrow  is  not  a  "  specialized 
form  "  of  the  divine  substance,  nor  is  the  force  which  controls 
its  fall  a  specific  and  immediate  volition  of  God.     "We  must 


192  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

not,"  says  Dr.  Valentine,  "  fall  into  the  mistake  of  some  theistic 
writers,  who  have  attributed  each  individual  and  separate  event 
in  nature  to  a  direct  act  of  the  divine  will  or  energy.  This 
error  annihilates  the  reality  of  secondary  causation.  It  is  not 
only  plain  contradiction  to  all  we  know  of  the  constitution  of 
nature,  but  it  vacates  the  very  postulate  on  which  the  theistic 
argumentation  is  based.  Natural  forces  are  real,  and  the  laws 
of  their  action  are  made  immanent  in  the  nature  of  the  elements 
or  organism  in  which  they  show  themselves.  But  they  are  the 
real  products  and  ordinations  of  the  Deity  who  gave  them  their 
reality  or  appointed  them  their  modes  or  laws.  .  .  .  They  are 
the  sequences  according  to  which  God  ordinarilj'  acts,  yet  their 
results  come,  not  as  direct,  but  as  mediate  products  of  the 
divine  power.  .  .  .  God  is  above  nature  and  below  it,  without  it 
and  within  it,  yet  never  a  part  of  it.  He  is  not  nature,  but 
nature  is  from  him,  and  subsists  by  him." 

Finally,  it  is  in  place  to  repeat  that  the  "  idea  of  God  as 
affected  by  modern  knowledge "  is  not  the  idea  of  a  power 
identical  with  the  forces  of  nature,  nor  of  a  power  absolutely 
and  eternally  immanent  in  the  universe ;  but  of  an  infinite 
Being  who  is  omnipotent  and  all-wise,  the  Source  of  all  finite 
being,  Cause  of  causes,  the  absolute  Mind,  in  which  only  can  be 
found  an  explanation  of  the  wisdom  and  unity  of  the  universe, 
who  is  Creator,  Presever,  Benefactor,  God  over  all,  blessed  for 


evermore 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  1 93 


CHAPTER  VI. 

CREATION — CONTINUED. 

"It  pleased  God,  for  the  manifestation  of  the  glory  of  his  eternal 
power,  wisdom,  and  goodness,  to  create  the  world  and  all  things  therein, 
whether  visible  or  invisible  ;  and  all  very  good. 

"After  God  had  made  all  other  creatures,  he  created  man  in  his  own 
image;  male  and  female  created  he  them,  enduing  them  with  intelligence, 
sensibility,  and  will ;  they  having  the  law  of  God  written  in  their  hearts, 
and  power  to  fulfill  it,  being  upright  and  free  f'-om  all  bias  to  evil." — Con- 
fession of  Faith. 

"And  God  said.  Let  there  be  light ;  and  there  was  light."— Gen.  i.  3. 

"  Happy  is  he  that  hath  the  God  of  Jacob  for  his  help. 
Whose  hope  is  in  the  Lord  his  God: 
Which  made  heaven  and  earth, 
The  sea,  and  all  that  in  them  is." — Psalm  cxlvi.  5,  6. 

"  For  from  him,  and  by  him,  and  to  him  are  all  things  :  To  him  be  the 
^lorj'  forever." — Rom.  xi.  36. 

"  It  is  clearly  delivered  in  the  teachings  of  the  apostles  that  there  is  one 
God  who  created  and  arranged  all  things,  and  who,  when  nothing  existed, 
called  all  things  into  being — God  from  the  first  creation  and  foundation 
of  the  world  ....  But  that  we  may  believe  on  the  authority  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures  that  such  is  the  case,  hear  how  in  the  Maccabees,  where  the 
mother  of  seven  martyrs  exhorts  her  son  to  endure  torture,  this  truth  is 
confirmed ;  for  she  says,  '  I  ask  of  thee,  my  son,  to  look  at  the  heaven  and 
the  earth,  and  at  all  things  which  are  in  them,  and,  beholding  these,  to 
know  that  God  made  all  these  things  when  they  did  not  exist.'  In  the 
book  of  the  Shepherd  also,  in  the  first  commandment,  he  speaks  as  fol- 
lows :  '  First  of  all  believe  there  is  one  God,  who  created  and  arranged  all 
things,  and  made  all  things  to  come  into  existence,  and  out  of  a  state  of 
nothingness.' " — Origen. 

TT  is  nothing  to  our  purpose  in  these  chapters  to  advocate  a 
theory  of  creation.  As  Dr.  Briggs  says  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  of  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  it  may  be  as  truthfully 
^aid,  that  "  it  has  no  co?isensus  of  opinion  on  the  doctrine  of 
•creation."  The  fact  of  a  creation,  as  a  theory  of  the  origin  of 
13 


194         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

the  universe,  we  hold  in  common  with  all  Christians,  as  of  fun- 
damental importance.  Moses  was  a  profound  philosopher  in 
rearing  his  great  system  of  theistic  teaching  on  the  corner- 
stone, "  God  created  the  heaven  and  the  earth."  If  Creator, 
then  is  God  the  sovereign  ruler  of  the  world. 

It  is  a  blessed  thing  to  so  look  upon  the  universe  as  to  bring 
God  near  to  us,  and  thus  to  rise  to  the  comforting  assurance  that 

"  The  voice  which  rolls  the  stars  along 
Spake  all  the  promises." 

But  the  only  adequate  foundation  for  such  assurance  is  the 
doctrine  that  we  live  in  a  real  world,  a  world  everywhere  exhib- 
iting plan  and  purpose,  "  the  work  of  an  Almighty  hand." 

Upon  the  Christian  doctrine  of  creation,  as  held  under  all  dis- 
pensations and  through  all  the  centuries  of  the  Church,  infidel- 
ity has  made  its  most  bitter  assaults.  The  doctrine  is  to-day  a 
battle-ground  thick  strewn  with  the  weapons  of  agnosticism, 
positivism,  materialism,  and  every  other  species  of  atheistic  phi- 
losophy. Astronomy,  geology,  biology  and  other  sciences  have 
been  claimed  by  the  enemy,  each  being  in  its  turn  paraded  upon 
the  field  as  a  Goliath  about  to  utterly  demolish  the  scriptural  idea 
of  there  having  been  a  beginning  and  a  creation  of  the  world. 
But  Christian  students  have  pushed  their  observations  as  far 
out  into  the  heavens  and  as  deep  into  the  strata  of  the  earth  as 
any  other  class  of  men,  and  they  return  from  their  investiga- 
tions to  assure  us  that  rocks  and  stars  alike,  viewed  in  all  the 
light  of  recent  scientific  progress,  show  unmistakably  the  foot- 
prints of  a  Creator.  Marvelous,  indeed,  both  in  extent  and 
richness,  is  the  literature  the  recent  discussion  of  this  subject 
has  produced.  Even  since  the  last  preceding  chapter  was 
written  the  press  has  announced  several  valuable  new  works, 
one  of  which  essays  the  arduous  task  of  an  explanation,  as  im- 
plied in  its  title,  of  The  Genesis  of  the  Universe.  Did  space 
permit,  we  would  gladly  enrich  these  pages  with  suitable  para- 
graphs  from   some   of  the  most   instructive   of  recent  works 


CUMBERI.AND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.       1 95 

relating  to  this  discussion.  But  it  is  well  for  us  continually  ta 
bear  in  mind  that  though  we  may  know  that  the  theory  of  crea- 
tion by  an  Omnipotent  Intelligence,  as  an  explanation  of  the 
universe,  is  the  most  rational  explanation  of  what  lies  open  to 
our  very  limited  knowledge,  the  subject  necessarily  and  infin- 
itely transcends  the  powers  of  the  most  gifted  of  human  minds ; 
so  that  beyond  very  narrow  limits  all  our  endeavors  at  explain- 
ing the  "  genesis  of  the  universe  "  find  just  rebuke  in  those 
remarkable  words,  as  applicable  to  any  Tyndall  or  Huxley  of 
to-day,  as  to  Job,  whose  arraignment  of  Providence  was 
answered  out  of  the  whirlwind  :  "  Who  is  this  that  darkeneth 
counsel  by  words  without  knowledge  ?  Gird  up  now  th}^  loins 
like  a  man ;  for  I  will  demand  of  thee,  and  answer  thou  me. 
"Where  wast  thou  when  I  laid  the  foundations  of  the  earth? 
declare,  if  thou  hast  understanding.  Who  determined  the 
measures  thereof,  if  thou  knowest?  or  who  hath  stretched  the 
line  upon  it?  Whereupon  are  the  foundations  thereof  fastened? 
or  who  laid  the  corner-stone  thereof;  when  the  morning  stars 
sang  together,  and  all  the  sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy?  .... 
Hast  thou  commanded  the  morning  since  thy  days,  and  caused 
the  dayspring  to  know  his  place  ?  .  .  .  .  Knowest  thou  the 
ordinance  of  heaven?  canst  thou  set  the  dominion  thereof  in 
the  earth?  ....  Wilt  thou  also  disannul  my  judgment?  " 

IvOtze,  the  German  philosopher,  well  says  that  "  the  two 
hostile  parties  should  return  to  modesty — namely,  that  theolog- 
ical learning  on  the  one  side,  and  irreligious  natural  science  on 
the  other,  should  not  assert  that  they  have  exact  knowledge 
about  so  much  which  they  neither  do  know  nor  can  know." 
The  theories  possible  respecting  creation  are  comprised,  as 
Lotze  maintains,  in  these  three — namely,  (i)  a  "  consistent  de- 
velopment of  the  nature  of  God,"  (2)  a  product  of  his  will,  (3) 
the  product  of  a  creative  act.  Excluding  the  first,  which  "  ap- 
pears in  all  the  emanation  theories  of  ancient  and  modern 
times,"  lyOtze  makes  the  following  judicious  and  most  valuable 


196         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

remarks  touching  the  religious  bearing  of  the  theory  which, 
claiming  science  as  its  basis,  would  displace  a  Creator  by  what  it 
terms  evolution  : 

"  So  far  as  this  view  endeavors  to  exclude  a  God  who  rules 
without  principle  in  blind  arbitrariness,  it  is  correct ;  and  in 
this  respect  corresponds  also  to  our  religious  need.  But  we 
must  resist  with  the  greatest  possible  decisiveness  the  further 
apotheosis  of  the  notion  of  '  development '  consequent  upon  this 
view,  which  it  is  customary  just  now  to  express  and  to  extol 
with  such  great  emphasis,  as  though  it  were  identical,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  with  all  that  is  great  and  sublime  and  holy. 

"  If  it  were  only  a  question  concerning  a  theoretical  explana- 
tion of  the  course  of  the  world,  then  such  a  conception  would 
be  satisfactory.  But  it  is  wholly  useless  from  the  religious 
point  of  view,  because  it  leads  consistently''  to  nothing  but  a 
thorough-going  determinism,  according  to  which  not  only  is 
every  thing  that  must  happen,  in  case  certain  conditions  occur, 
appointed  in  pursuance  of  general  laws ;  but  according  to  which 
even  the  successive  occurrence  of  these  conditions,  and  conse- 
quently the  whole  of  history  with  all  its  details,  is  predeter- 
mined. 

"  In  such  a  mechanical  contrivance  there  is  no  place  whatever 
for  any  '  freedom '  or  '  activity,'  or  for  an  effort  that  shall  pro- 
duce aught  which  does  not  originate  from  the  mechanism  itself. 
Religious  opinion  assumes  rather  that,  while  there  are  universal 
laws,  without  whose  eflEicacy  no  '  design  '  whatever  would  be 
able  by  definite  means  to  attain  to  a  definite  goal,  there  is  how- 
•ever  at  the  same  time,  on  the  basis  and  in  the  domain  of  this 
reign  of  law,  a  free,  voluntary  activity,  which,  by  the  use  and 
combination  of  the  given  elements  acting  in  accordance  with 
law,  produces  that  even  which  would  have  no  existence  without 
such  activity. 

"  The  above-mentioned  assumption  has  its  difl&culties.  Until, 
however,  it  is  shown  decisively  to  be  impossible,  the  religious 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  197 

feeling  will  never  return  to  the  thought  of  an  '  undesigned,  in- 
evitable development '  of  the  world  from  the  nature  of  God,  but 
will  derive  it  from  an  act  of  the  divine  will,  without  which  it 
would  not  have  existed." 

So,  as  it  seems  to  us,  every  phase  of  materialism,  as  a  theory 
of  the  world,  involves  principles  utterly  subversive  of  all  ideas 
of  freedom  and  responsibility  in  any  and  every  sense  in  which 
these  are  essential  to  religion.  Materialism  is  fatalistic  deter- 
minism. Though  neither  blind  "  inevitable  development"  nor 
materialism  is  necessarily  exclusive  of  the  idea  of  God,  they  are 
alike  exclusive  of  the  idea  of  religion ;  for,  as  Sir  William 
Hamilton  declares,  "  the  assertion  of  absolute  necessity,  is 
virtually  the  negation  of  a  moral  universe,  and  consequently  of 
the  Moral  Governor  of  a  moral  universe." 

So,  as  the  subject  is  pursued,  will  it  appear  that  any  false 
system  of  philosophy  relating  to  the  fundamental  principles  of 
morals  and  religion  will  of  necessity  vitiate  the  whole  stream 
flowing  therefrom,  and  entail  upon  society  the  most  direful 
calamities.  False  philosophy  is  a  powerful  agency  for  evil, 
working  unrest  in  the  public  mind,  wresting  thought  and  feel- 
ing from  safe  moorings,  slackening  the  moral  bands  which  hold 
men  in  peaceable  and  helpful  relations,  and  paving  the  way  for 
stormy  revolution.  One's  life  may  indeed  be  better  than  his 
theory,  but  his  theory,  if  false,  must  nevertheless  w'ork  evil  in 
the  world  of  thought  and  action.  Hence,  we  have  insisted 
again  and  again  on  the  Christian  idea  of  a  divine  origin  of  the 
world,  in  which  theory  only  is  it  possible  to  find  an  enduring 
basis  for  the  idea  of  moral  government.  This  foundation  de- 
stroyed, humanity's  prospect  is  pessimistic  indeed.  "  Once 
thoroughly  established,"  says  de  Pressense,  "  this  conclusion 
(the  possibility  of  a  divine  and  moral  world)  suffices  to  secure  to 
humanity  its  most  precious  possession — that  higher  life,  apart 
from  which  man  misses  all  that  distinguishes  him  from  the 
brute,  and  is  without  any  light  bej^ond  the  grave,  without  any 


1^8         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

compass  on  his  voyage  through  life,  without  morality,  without 
law,  without  liberty,  given  up  to  the  chances  of  brute  force,  a 
helpless  and  degraded  thing." 

Christian  teaching,  then,  is  that  the  world  in  which  we  live 
is  a  real  one,  that  our  cognitive  faculties,  wdthin  limits  required 
by  our  well-being,  are  reliable,  and  not  imposed  on  us  to  deceive; 
that,  as  dependent  and  finite,  the  world  must  have  had  a  cause ; 
that,  as  exhibiting  order,  adaptation,  and  design,  it  must  have 
had  an  intelligent  cause,  w'hich  cause  is  an  Omnipotent  Intelli- 
gence, "  who  spake  and  it  was  done,  who  commanded  and  it 
stood  fast."  And  what  is  the  attitude  of  this  doctrine  in  rela- 
tion to  the  wonderful  progress  in  science,  which,  along  so  many 
lines  of  investigation,  has  so  notably  distinguished  the  last  half 
a  century?  The  following  propositions  will,  it  seems  to  us, 
fairly  and  substantially  express  the  truth  upon  this  point : 

I.  Science  has  illustrated  and  confirmed  the  position  that  the 
world  must  have  had  a  beginning,  in  other  words,  that  it  is  not 
eternal,  and,  therefore,  that  it  must  have  had  a  cause. 

The  universe,  as  we  know  it,  exhibits  only  that  which  is 
finite,  dependent,  transient.  Every  phenomenon  is  dependent 
on  a  cause,  and  that  cause  on  an  antecedent  cause.  It  is  no 
more  true,  as  science  views  the  world,  that  insects  and  flowers 
are  ephemeral,  that  man  fleeth  as  a  shadow  and  continueth  not, 
and  that  the  human  race  can  not  have  been  always  in  existence, 
than  it  is  that  the  earth  itself  once  was  not,  that  the  great  solar 
system  once  was  not,  that  the  parent  orb  dispensing  light  and 
heat  is,  as  the  poet  declares,  but  "a  transient  meteor  in  the  sky." 
Astronomy  has  opened  up  to  us  almost  infinite  depths  of  the  as- 
tral universe,  to  show  us  that  "  even  now,  at  this  ver}-  time, 
there  exist  in  the  depths  of  space  all  orders  of  suns — suns  still 
growing ;  suns  ruling  over  schemes  already  formed ;  and,  lastly, 
dead  and  used  up  suns,  waiting,  as  it  were,  for  some  future 
change,  by  which  they  will  be  restored  to  activity  and  useful- 
ness." 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  1 99 

In  like  manner,  geology,  reading  the  earth's  history  in  its  own 
records  in  the  rock,  tells  us  there  was  a  time  when  man  was  not, 
a  time  when  the  present  plants  and  animals  were  not,  a  time 
when  an  unbroken  sea  covered  the  globe,  a  time  when  life  had 
not  yet  dawned,  and  when  the  conditions  were  such  that  life 
would  have  been  impossible.  Thus  has  science  powerfully  and 
most  thoroughly  refuted  the  scoffers  of  St.  Peter's  time,  who,  ar- 
guing from  what  they  supposed  the  changeless  stability  of  all 
parts  of  the  universe,  ridiculed  the  idea  of  the  destruction  of  the 
earth,  and  of  the  formation  of  new  heavens  and  a  new  earth. 
And  so  in  many  points  science  has  risen  to  vindicate  the  Bible, 
to  silence  scoffers.  Understood  in  the  light  of  science,  the  nota- 
ble passage  in  Hebrews  (i.  10-12)  puts  on  transcendent  beauty 
and  significance:  "And  thou,  Lord,  in  the  beginning  hast  laid 
the  foundation  of  the  earth ;  and  the  heavens  are  the  works  of 
thine  hands.  Thej^  shall  perish,  but  thou  continuest ;  and  they 
shall  wax  old  as  doth  a  garment.  And  as  a  vesture  shalt  thou 
fold  them  up,  and  they  shall  be  changed ;  but  thou  are  the  same, 
and  thy  years  shall  not  fail."  It  is  reason's  demand  and  the 
Bible's  assertion,  that  back  of  this  ceaselessly  shifting  panorama 
we  call  the  universe  there  is,  not  something  only,  but  a  some 
One,  who  is  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever,  who  reveals 
himself  to  his  rational  creation  through  these  garments  changed, 
laid  aside,  and  renewed  as  may  serve  the  purpose  of  his  sover- 
eign will. 

2.  Science  proposes  no  adequate  or  plausible  theory  of  the 
origin  of  the  universe. 

Agnosticism  denies  that  we  can  know  any  thing  about  God  or 
any  other  cause  of  the  universe.  Positivism  says  we  can  know 
facts  only,  and  that  to  inquire  about  causes  is  foolish.  But  sci- 
ence says  there  was  a  beginning,  and  reason  postulates  the 
necessity  of  a  cause.  Evolution  comes  forward  to  explain  the 
mode  in  which  and  the  forces  by  which  great  changes  from  low- 
er to  higher  have  been  effected  in  the  organic  life  of  the  globe ; 


200  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

but  even  in  this  little  domain  of  nature's  vast  field  it  can  not 
make  a  beginning  without  God,  for  its  most  intelligent  ex- 
pounders confess  that  they  meet  with  numerous  chasms,  a  dozen 
or  more,  which  evolution  is  utterly  unable  to  bridge.  Here  the 
advocates  of  the  theory  may  themselves  be  allowed  to  testify. 
Darwin  says :  "  In  what  manner  the  mental  powers  were  first  de- 
veloped in  the  lowest  organisms  is  as  hopeless  an  inquiry  as 
how  life  first  originated.  These  are  problems  for  the  distant 
future,  if  they  are  ever  to  be  solved  by  man."  Similarly  he 
speaks  of  "the  great  break  in  the  organic  chain  between  man 
and  his  nearest  allies,  which  can  not  be  bridged  over  by  any  ex- 
tinct or  living  species."  Darwin  believed,  however,  that,  with 
the  start  of  one  or  a  few  primordial  forms  into  which  God  had 
breathed  life,  evolution  has  worked  out  the  manifold  and  won- 
drous varieties  of  life,  from  the  monad  up  to  man. 

Science  has  thrown  no  bridge  across  the  chasm  during  the 
few  years  which  have  transpired  since  Tyndall,  in  a  lecture  on 
"The  Origin  of  Life,"  gave  utterance  to  the  following: 

"  This  discourse  is  but  a  summing  up  of  eight  months  of  inces- 
sant labor.  From  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  inquiry, 
there  is  not,  as  you  have  seen,  a  shadow  of  evidence  in  favor  of 
spontaneous  generation.  There  is,  on  the  contrary,  overwhelm- 
ing evidence  against  it;  but  do  not  carry  away  with  you  the 
notion,  sometimes  erroneously  ascribed  to  me,  that  I  deem  spon- 
taneous generation  impossible,  or  that  I  wish  to  limit  the  power 
of  matter  in  relation  to  life.  My  views  on  this  subject  ought  to 
be  well  known.  But  possibility  is  one  thing,  and  proof  is  an- 
other ;  and  when  in  our  day  I  seek  for  experimental  evidence  of 
the  transformation  of  the  non-living  into  the  living,  I  am  led  in- 
exorably to  the  conclusion  that  no  such  evidence  exists,  and 
that,  in  the  lowest  as  well  as  the  highest  of  organized  creatures, 
the  method  of  nature  is,  that  life  shall  be  the  issue  of  anteced- 
ent life." 

Professor  Huxley  has  conceded  that  "  of  the  causes  which 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  201 

have  led  to  the  origination  of  living  matter  it  may  be  said  that 
we  know  absolutely  nothing.  .  .  .  The  present  state  of  knowl- 
edge furnishes  us  with  no  link  between  the  living  and  the  not- 
living." 

To  the  foregoing  utterances  of  men  whose  authority  as  scien- 
tists will  not  be  questioned,  we  may  add  the  remarkable  lan- 
guage of  Sir  William  Thompson  in  his  inaugural  address  when 
assuming  the  presidential  chair  of  the  British  Association,  at  a 
meeting  in  Edinburgh,  but  a  few  years  ago : 

"A  very  ancient  speculation,  still  clung  to  by  many  naturalists 
(so  much  so,  that  I  have  a  choice  of  modern  terms  to  quote  in 
expressing  it),  supposes  that,  under  meteorological  conditions 
very  diflferent  from  the  present,  dead  matter  may  have  run  to- 
gether or  crystallized  or  fermented  into  'germs  of  life,'  or 
'organic  cells,'  or  'protoplasm.'  But  science  brings  a  vast  mass 
of  inductive  evidence  against  this  hypothesis  of  spontaneous 
generation,  as  you  have  heard  from  my  predecessor  in  the  presi- 
dential chair.  Careful  enough  scrutiny  has,  in  every  case  up  to 
the  present  day,  discovered  life  as  antecedent  to  life.  Dead 
matter  can  not  become  living  without  coming  under  the  influ- 
ence of  matter  previously  alive.  This  seems  to  me  as  sure  a 
teaching  of  science  as  the  law  of  gravitation." 

Since,  then,  it  is  absurd  to  regard  the  universe,  which  is  de- 
pendent and  ever  changing,  as  an  eternal  series  of  progression 
and  regression ;  since  the  phenomena  of  life  and  intelligence 
upon  our  globe  exhibit  gaps  which  can  not  be  bridged  by  any 
laws  or  forces  known  to  science ;  and  since  if  evolution  can  be 
shown  to  account  satisfactorily,  by  forces  working  in  nature,  for 
the  origin  of  life  and  the  vast  and  varied  expansion  of  the  or- 
ganic kingdoms,  such  an  endowment  of  matter  would  necessitate 
an  intelligent  endowing  cause,  science  teaches  nothing  that 
invalidates,  but  much  that  fortifies  the  scriptural  testimony  that, 
"In  the  beginning  God  created  \h^  heaven  and  the  earth."  Nor 
need  the  doctrine  of  the  divine  creation  of  man  and  his  world 


202  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

fear  any  startling  surprises  that  yet  await  the  progress  of 
science;  for  if  it  turn  out  that  there  is  truth  in  the  dogmatic  as- 
sumption of  Huxley  that  "  the  whole  existing  world  once  lay 
potentially  in  the  cosmic  vapor,  and  that  from  a  knowledge  of 
the  properties  of  its  molecules  it  would  have  been  possible  to 
predict  the  present  state  of  the  British  flora  and  fauna  as  easily 
as  one  might  tell  what  would  happen  to  the  vapor  of  the  breath 
on  a  winter's  day,"  yet  would  reason  insist  that  it  required  infi- 
nite wisdom  and  infinite  power  to  endow  "  cosmic  vapor  "  with 
potency  to  work  out  a  scheme  so  stupendous  in  its  proportions 
and  rational  in  its  ends. 

But  science  has  most  certainly  taught  us : 

3.  That  the  creation,  in  the  sense  in  which  it  has  usually  been 
conceived,  occurred  at  a  period  vastly  longer  ago  than  biblical 
scholars  have  been  accustomed  to  assign. 

So  late  as  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the 
English  Parliament  directed  Archbishop  Usher  to  settle  the 
question  as  to  the  exact  date  of  the  creation,  whereupon  that 
eminent  ecclesiastic  and  biblical  scholar  assigned  the  event  to 
October  25,  B.C.  4004.  The  Westminster  divines  held  the  cre- 
ative days  to  be  literal  days  of  twenty-four  hours  each,  and 
almost  countless  have  been  the  well-meant  but  fruitless  efi"orts 
to  reconcile  that  interpretation  of  Genesis  with  the  now  unques- 
tioned teachings  of  geology.  It  would  require  many  pages  to 
even  state  intelligently  all  the  geological  proofs  of  the  earth's 
high  antiquity.  In  its  own  rocky  strata  it  chronicles  a  history 
which  can  not  be  questioned,  embracing  vast  cycles  of  time 
during  which — 

"  Many  a  change  both  wild  and  strange 
Reversed  the  sea  and  land." 

In  the  earth's  records  of  its  vast  and  varied  life-periods  we 
encounter  facts  innumerable  which  demand  for  their  production 
periods  of  time  beyond  our  comprehension.  During  a  half  day 
spent  in  the  British  Museum,  London,  it  was  the  writer's  privi- 


CUMBERIvAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  203 

lege  and  never-to-be-forgotten  satisfaction  to  stroll  through  a 
long  series  of  apartments  in  a  great  room  allotted  to  a  fossillifer- 
ous  representation  of  the  life-history  of  the  globe.  Turning 
from  the  azoic  rocks  in  one  end,  we  find,  on  the  right  and  on  the 
left,  rocks  containing  the  rudimentary  forms  of  the  earliest  life 
period ;  a  few  steps  brings  us  to  the  limestones  literally  packed 
with  the  fossils  of  the  molluscs  which  flourished  in  warm  and 
widespread  seas ;  and  now  the  rocks  on  either  hand  tell  us  of 
the  wonderful  dynasty  of  the  fishes  ;  passing  on,  we  are  amid 
the  records  of  the  great  plant  period  of  the  earth,  during 
which  the  vast  coal  measures  were  stored  away  for  man's  use ; 
and  now  there  gleam  upon  us  the  huge,  weird  forms  of  the  age 
of  the  reptiles ;  beyond  these  we  are  amid  the  great  beasts  of  a 
by-gone  age — the  megatherium,  the  dinotherium,  and  other 
gigantic  creatures  who  have  now  no  like  upon  the  earth ;  and 
now  we  have  the  progenitors  of  the  beasts  of  to-day,  and  last 
of  all,  with  his  associated  animals  on  either  hand,  there  is  in  the 
center  of  the  end  of  the  hall,  directly  facing  us  as  he  stares  out 
of  his  rocky  tomb,  the  famous  fossil  man  from  Guadaloupe.  Of 
all  the  interesting  impressions  associated  with  this  panoramic 
view  of  perhaps  millions  of  years  of  earth's  historj^,  no  one  was 
more  vivid  than  that  of  the  palpable  and  startling  confirmation 
it  affords  of  the  truth  of  the  biblical  declaration  that  man  was 
the  last  and  crowning  work  of  the  creation.  How  came  Moses 
to  anticipate  by  thousands  of  years  the  teachings  of  the  science 
of  to-day? 

If,  now,  we  turn  our  attention  from  the  earth  beneath  us  to 
the  heavens  above  us,  on  all  sides  we  find  manifold  proofs  of 
great  antiquity.  According  to  the  nebular  hypothesis,  our  Solar 
System  has  been  evolved,  by  cosmic  forces  now  in  operation 
in  the  heavens,  from  an  original  nebula,  or  cloud  of  intensely 
heated  gas,  which  extended  beyond  the  orbit  of  the  now  outer- 
most planet.  If  the  present  system  has  resulted  from  cooling 
.and  contraction  in  the  parent  mass  at  rates  for  which  present 


204  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

facts  furnish  any  reliable  data,  the  process  has  required,  astron- 
omers tell  us,  from  fifteen  millions  to  twenty  millions  of  years. 
We  need  not  be  startled  at  this  demand  for  time — and  astronomy 
could  be  allowed  a  few  millions  more  still,  for  in  the  calendar  of 
the  Eternal  a  thousand  years  are  but  as  one  day.  Time  in  his 
creative  processes  can  not  put  the  Creator  far  away  from  us.  It 
seems  equally  true  that  the  heavens  have  been  of  old,  and  that 
processes  now  known  to  be  going  on  in  the  heavens  "can  have," 
as  Professor  Young  declares,  "  but  one  ultimate  result — that  of 
absolute  stagnation."  "  That  in  some  way  this  end  of  things 
will  result  in  a  '  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth '  is,  of  course,  very 
probable,"  saj^s  the  same  writer,  adding,  "but  science  can  yet 
present  no  explanation  of  the  method." 

In  concluding  this  part  of  our  subject  it  may  both  suitably 
and  truthfully  be  said  that,  if  science  has  required  great  modifi- 
cation in  our  interpretation  of  the  Mosaic  account  of  creation,^ 
and  has  raised  some  difficulties  which  may  not  A'et  have  been 
full}^  explained,  the  general  effect  of  the  fuller  light  of  science 
thrown  upon  this  ancient  record  is  to  reveal  its  almost  infinite 
.superiority  to  other  cosmogonies  of  its  time,  and  its  incalculable 
and  imperishable  value  to  the  race.  The  narrative  of  the  crea- 
tion is  to  be  interpreted  by  the  purpose  for  which  it  was  given, 
on  which  point  Geike's  Hours  zvith  the  Bible  has  these  judicious 
words : 

"  It  is  clear  from  this  abstract  that  it  could  not  have  been  the 
design  of  God  to  give  in  the  few  opening  lines  of  Genesis  an 
exact  scientific  statement  of  the  stages  observed  in  creation. 
The  sublime  truth  that  nature  was  prepared  step  by  step  for  the 
appearance  of  man,  is  the  great  lesson  intended,  and  science  cor- 
roborates it  throughout Man  is  recognized  by  the  highest 

authorities  of  modern  science  as  beyond  question  the  ideal  being 
toward  whose  appearance  '  nature  had  been  working  for  the  ear- 
liest ages;  a  being,  therefore,  whose  existence  had  been  fore- 
ordained.' " 


CUMBERIvAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  205 

So  Professor  Owen,  the  eminent  naturalist,  alluding  to  the 
manifold  orders  of  life  which  have  existed  upon  the  globe,  says : 
"The  link  by  which  they  are  connected  is  of  a  higher  and 
immaterial  nature ;  and  their  connection  is  to  be  sought  in  the 
view  of  the  Creator  himself,  whose  aim  in  forming  the  earth,  in 
allowing  it  to  undergo  the  successive  changes  which  geology 
has  pointed  out,  and  in  creating,  successively,  all  the  different 
types  of  animals  which  have  passed  away,  was  to  introduce  7nan 
up07i  the  surface  of  our  globe.  Man  is  the  end  toward  which  all 
the  animal  creation  has  tended." 

The  following  sentences  from  Dr.  Foster's  Old  Testament  Stud- 
ies, a  work  fresh  from  the  press,  are  very  pertinent  and  suggestive  : 

"The  Mosaic  doctrine  of  creation  places  itself  far  above  all 
teathen  and  non-biblical  theories,  by  the  sublime  declaration, 
'  In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven  and  the  earth;'  though 
it  is  evident  that  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  and  the  subsequent 
inspired  commentaries  upon  it  are,  so  far  as  their  form  is  con- 
cerned, addressed  to  the  religious  faith  of  the  people,  rather 
than  to  the  scientific  curiosity.  It  stands  in  direct  contradiction 
to  the  atheistic  theory  of  chance.  The  world  was  not  produced 
by  any  process  of  self-generation,  nor  by  the  unintelligent 
action  of  impersonal  forces,  nor  by  many  agents  like  the  good 
and  evil  principles  of  the  Persian  theory,  with  which  the  Israel- 
ites may  have  become  acquainted  during  the  Babylonish  captiv- 
ity. It  implies,  and  it  implied  to  the  Israelitish  mind,  the  eter- 
nity of  the  God  whose  existence  it  assumes,  for,  having  created 
all  things,  he  must  be  before  all  things ;  it  implied  his  omnipo- 
tence, for  he  who  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth  could  do 
an5"  thing  that  was  conceivable ;  it  implied  his  absolute  freedom, 
for  it  represented  him  not  only  as  beginning  a  new  course  of 
action,  but  as  doing  it  by  the  free  exercise  of  his  own  will ;  it 
also  implied  to  them  his  infinite  wisdom,  for  such  an  orderly 
heaven  and  earth  as  was  known  even  to  the  Israelites  could  be 
the  product  only  of  a  mind  of  absolute  intelligence." 


2o6  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

Perhaps  from  no  other  point  of  view  are  we  so  clearly  and 
profoundly  impressed  with  the  majesty,  grandeur,  and  divine 
origin  of  the  Scriptures,  as  when  we  compare  their  teachings 
respecting  the  origin  and  nature  of  the  world  with  the  pueril- 
ities and  ludicrous  absurdities  found  in  the  very  best  of  heathen 
cosmogonies.  Thus,  the  Hindu  idea  of  the  universe  is  fitly 
expressed  in  this  paragraph  :  "  Millions  upon  millions  of  cycles 
ago,  this  world  came  to  be.  It  was  made  a  fiat  triangular  plain 
with  high  hills  and  mountains  and  great  waters.  It  exists  in 
several  stories,  and  the  whole  mass  is  held  up  on  the  heads  of 
elephants  with  their  tails  turned  out,  and  their  feet  rest  on  the 
shell  of  an  immense  tortoise,  and  the  tortoise  on  the  coil  of  a 
great  snake,  and  when  those  elephants  shake  themselves,  that 
makes  the  earth  quake." 

From  the  Babylonian  doctrine  of  the  origin  of  things  we  have 
this  :  "  In  the  beginning  all  was  darkness  and  water,  and  there- 
in v:ere  generated  monstrous  animals  of  strange  and  peculiar 
form.  There  were  men  with  two  wings,  and  some  even  with 
four  and  with  two  faces ;  and  others  with  two  heads — a  man's 
and  a  woman's — on  the  same  body ;  and  there  were  men  with 
the  heads  and  horns  of  goats,  and  men  with  hoofs  like  horses, 
and  some  with  the  upper  parts  of  a  man  joined  to  the  lower 
parts  of  a  horse,  like  centaurs ;  and  there  were  bulls  with  hu- 
man heads,  dogs  with  four  bodies  and  with  the  tails  of  fishes ; 
men  and  horses  with  dogs'  heads ;  creatures  with  the  heads  and 
bodies  of  horses,  but  with  fishes'  tails,  mixing  the  forms  of  va- 
rious beasts." 

It  is  asserted  by  those  competent  to  give  a  reliable  judgment 
in  the  premises,  that,  in  like  manner,  the  teachings  of  the  wisest 
uninspired  men  of  antiquit5^  not  excepting  even  those  of  Sen- 
eca, Socrates  and  Plato,  Pythagoras  or  Aristotle,  contain  absurd- 
ities which  are  not  only  utterly  disproved  by  well  ascertained 
scientific  facts,  but  are  sheer  nonsense  in  the  judgment  of  en- 
lightened reason.     In  view  of  this  solitary  exception  exhibited 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  207 

by  the  Bible,  a  recent  writer  inquires :  "  Who  guarded  this  most 
ancient  volume  from  the  superstitions  which  corrupted  chemis- 
try into  alchemy,  and  astronomy  into  astrology  ?  Who  taught  the 
writer  of  the  104th  Psalm  to  compose  that  grand  poem  on  the 
wonders  of  the  created  world,  and  yet  introduce  not  one  of  the 
scientific  errors  current  in  those  days  ?  so  that  even  von  Hum- 
boldt was  compelled  to  confess  that  '  in  a  lyrical  poem  of  such 
limited  compass,  we  find  the  whole  universe,  the  heavens  and 
the  earth,  sketched  with  a  few  bold  touches? ' " 

If  any  are  perplexed  over  seeming  discrepancies  between  the 
teachings  of  science  and  the  teachings  of  Genesis,  let  them  re- 
member that  almost  innumerable  scientific  theories,  regarded  for 
a  time  as  about  to  otherthrow  the  Bible,  have,  one  after  another, 
been  abandoned.  At  the  opening  of  the  century  the  French 
Institute  of  Science  counted,  it  is  said,  eighty  theories  "  hostile 
to  the  Bible,"  of  which  theories  every  one  has  been  abandoned 
by  scientists.  And  so,  while  man's  progress  in  knowledge — for 
he  does  progress — consists  largely  in  casting  aside  theories  that 
were  but  "  science  falsely  so  called,"  the  Christian  may  with 
unshaken  confidence  rest  in  that  record  whose  Author  declares 
"  Heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away,  but  my  word  shall  not  pass 
away." 

As  relating  to  the  adjustment  between  the  Bible  doctrine  of 
creation,  and  the  teachings  of  modern  science,  these  words  of 
Dr.  A.  A.  Hodge  (Commentary  on  the  Confession)  are  judicious 
and  comprehensive  :  "  (i)  The  record  in  Genesis  has  been  given 
by  divine  revelation,  and  therefore  is  infallibly  true.  (2)  The 
book  of  nature  and  the  book  of  revelation  are  both  from  God, 
and  will  be  found,  when  both  are  adequately  interpreted,  to  co- 
incide perfectly.  (3)  The  facts  upon  which  the  science  of  geol- 
ogy is  based  are  yet  very  imperfectly  collected  and  much  more 
imperfectly  understood.  The  time  has  not  come  yet,  in  which  a 
profitable  comparison  and  adjustment  of  the  two  records  can  be 
effected.     (4)  The  record  in  Genesis,  brief  and  general  as  it  is, 


2o8         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

was  designed  and  is  admirably  adapted  to  lay  the  foundation  of 
an  intelligent  faith  in  Jehovah  as  the  absolute  creator  and  the 
immediate  former  and  ruler  of  all  things.  But  it  was  not  de- 
signed either  to  prevent  or  to  take  the  place  of  a  scientific  in- 
terpretation of  all  existing  phenomena,  and  of  all  traces  of  the 
past  history  of  the  world  God  allows  men  to  discover.  Appar- 
ent discrepancies  in  establishing  truths  can  have  their  ground 
only  in  imperfect  knowledge.  God  requires  us  both  to  believe 
and  to  learn.  He  imposes  on  us  at  present  the  necessity  of  hu- 
mility and  patience." 

It  is  knowledge  superficial  and  one-sided,  as  a  rule,  which 
prates  of  "discrepancies"  between  God's  word  and  his  works. 
On  this  point  the  observation  of  Bacon  has  most  pertinent  appli- 
cation :  "  A  little  learning  inclineth  men's  minds  to  skepticism ; 
but  much  learning  bringeth  them  back  again  to  religion." 

In  the  further  analysis  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Confession  we 

note: 

2.   The  content  of  the  creation,  namely,  "  the  world   and  all 

things  therein,  whether  visible  or  invisible." 

This  statement  implies  that  only  God  is  uncaused  and  eternal, 
and  that  whatever  is,  besides  him,  owes  its  existence  to  the  ' 
divine  creative  agency.  If  we  hold  the  doctrine  of  the  creation 
of  any  thing,  in  its  substance  and  in  its  form  as  a  creature,  we 
will  consistently  hold  the  creation  of  all  things.  "  By  him  were 
created  all  things  which  are  in  the  heavens  and  which  are  upon 
the  earth,  things  visible  and  things  invisible,  whether  thrones  or 
lordships,  or  governments  or  powers;  all  things  were  created 
through  him  and  for  him."— Col.  i.  i6.  In  this  Pauline  state- 
ment of  the  heirship  of  Christ  to  all  things,  because  all  were 
made  through  and  for  him,  the  "  things  visible  "  are  thought  to 
be  the  material  fabric  and  all  material  objects  therein,  and  the 
"things  invisible"  are  thought  to  be  the  various  orders  of 
angels,  further  represented  as  principalities,  powers,  etc.  While 
the  sacred  writer  doubtless  meant  to  ascribe  to  Christ  the  crea- 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  209 

tion  of  all  things,  we  are  not  to  suppose  his  enumeration  of 
things  created  was  at  all  designed  to  be  a  complete  inventory  of 
the  orders  of  being  or  of  the  elementary  substances  making  up 
the  universe. 

"While  some  philosophers  have  held  that  mind  is  the  sole 
entity,  and  others  have  held  that  matter  is  the  sole  entity,  the 
majority  of  thinkers  have  held  that  mind  and  matter  are  dis- 
tinct entities,  and  that  dualism  is  therefore  the  true  theory  of  the 
universe.  No  necessary  laws  of  thought  require  the  acceptance 
of  any  one  of  these  theories.  If  God  has  created  substance,  he 
may  have  created  many  species  of  substance.  Why  not  ?  It 
may  be  that  what  we  call  matter  exists  in  species,  although  all 
forms  of  it  known  to  us  possess  some  properties  in  common. 
We  can  not  know  substance.  We  know  phenomena,  and  be- 
lieve there  must  be  a  substance,  an  entity  that  hiows,  and  also  a 
something  that  is  known  as  existing  and  acting  on  the  percip- 
ient being.  Thus  we  arrive  at  a  dtialism  embracing  (i)  that 
which  is  extended,  called  matter,  and  that  which  thinks,  or  mind. 
Some  claim  that  we  have  knowledge  of  four  species  of  non- 
material  substance:  (i)  The  eternal  Creator,  (2)  the  soul  of  man, 
(3)  the  brute  mind,  (4)  the  principle  of  vegetable  life.  Origen 
says  that  "  God  created  two  general  natures — a  visible,  that  is,  a 
corporeal  nature,  and  an  invisible  nature,  which  is  incorporeal." 
According  to  Rosmini,  an  Italian  philosopher,  cosmology  has 
for  its  scope  the  study  of  (i)  pure  spirits,  (2)  souls,  (3)  bodies. 
"  Since  the  body  is  the  proximate  cause  of  our  sensations,"  saj^s 
Rosmini,  "  and  these  are  facts  which  happen  in  us  without  our 
agency,  while  we  are  merely  passive  subjects,  it  follows  of  ne- 
cessity that  we  are  not  body.  And  since  that  which  the  word 
we;  expresses  is  the  feeling  and  thinking  subject,  therefore  this 
subject  is  a  substance  entirely  diJBFerent  from  corporeal  sub- 
tance."  Through  phenomena  we  know  there  is  a  something  we 
call  matter,  and  for  a  like  reason  we  know  there  is  a  something 
■which  exhibits  the  experienced  phenomena  of  thinking,  feeling, 
14 


2IO  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

willing,  which  something  we  call  mind.  There  is  a  material 
world,  and  there  is  a  world  of  mind.  The  former  exists  for  the 
latter.  God  is  the  creator  of  both.  What  matter  is,  what  mind 
is,  and  how  God  caused  either  to  be,  are  things  that  absolutely 
transcend  our  power  to  know. 

We  must  not,  however,  in  referring  all  things  visible  and  in- 
visible to  the  creative  power  of  God  as  the  efficient  cause  of 
their  existence  think  of  them  as  simultaneous  products  of  a 
single  creative  act  or  "work,"  nor  that  they  were  all  called  into 
being,  as  was  formerly  thought,  within  the  space  of  six  literal 
days.  Long  had  the  earth  existed  as  the  abode  of  multitudi- 
nous life  ere  "  dust  was  fashioned  into  man."  Perhaps  we  may 
rightl}'  believe,  with  some,  that  God  is  ever-creating,  and  all 
about  us,  though  we  have  known  it  not ;  or  with  others,  as 
lyOtze,  that  "  the  will  to  create  is  an  absolutely  eternal  predicate 
of  God,  and  ought  not  to  be  used  to  designate  a  deed  of  his,  so 
much  as  the  absolute  dependence  of  the  world  upon  his  will.'''' 

3.  That  7na?i  was  last  created. — In  the  statement  of  Genesis  on 
this  point  there  is,  as  already  remarked,  a  complete  correspond- 
ence with  a  fact  thoroughly  and  independently  established  by 
science — a  correspondence  it  would  be  almost  impossible  for  us 
to  believe  a  mere  coincidence  !  When  the  abode,  long  in  prep- 
aration, was  ready  for  man,  the  divine  creative  agency  intro- 
duced man  to  his  abode  ;  and  thus  was  consummated  a  purpose 
which  worked  ceaselesslj^  through  the  geological  transforma- 
tions preceding  man's  appearance.  In  man  the  long  series,  ever 
working  to  an  end,  finds  a  rational  interpretation — a  world  fitted 
for  the  abode  of  one  capable  of  knowing  it,  using  it,  enjoying  it, 
and  of  seeing  therein  the  glory  of  the  wisdom,  power,  and  good- 
ness of  its  and  his  Creator. 

Of  man's  creation  the  Confession  states  specifically : 

{a)  He  was  created  in  God's  image.  There  has  been  much 
dispute  among  theologians  as  to  what  is  to  be  understood  by  the 
"  image  of  God  "  as  predicated  of  man  in  his  original  endow- 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  211 

ment.  The  Westminster  Confession  uses  language  that  seems 
to  define  the  meaning  to  be,  "  with  reasonable  and  immortal 
souls,  endued  with  knowledge,  righteousness,  and  true  holiness," 
adding,  "  after  his  (God's)  own  image." 

The  sacred  record  not  onl}'  positively  asserts,  but  reduplicates 
the  astounding  assertion :  "  So  God  created  man  in  his  own 
image ;  in  the  image  of  God  created  he  him."  Wonderful  kin- 
ship of  nature  is  man's !  Made  in  the  image  of  his  Creator ! 
Endowed  to  know  and  to  enjoy ;  to  plan  and  to  be  a  worker  to- 
gether with  God;  to  discern  good  and  evil;  to  be  a  subject  of 
the  vast  moral  empire  of  Jehovah,  and  an  heir  to  the  eternal 
blessedness  of  virtue  !  "  If  we  would  see  God's  conception  of 
man,"  says  Joseph  Parker,  "  we  must  look  upon  the  face  of 
his  Son — him  of  whom  he  said,  '  This  is  my  beloved  Son,  in 
whom  I  am  well  pleased.'  ....  Let  us  steadfastly  gaze  on 
Christ,  marking  the  perfectness  of  his  lineaments,  the  harmony 
of  his  attributes,  the  sublimity  of  his  purpose,  and  then  point- 
ing to  him  in  his  solitude  of  beauty  and  holiness,  we  may  ex- 
claim, '  Behold  the  image  of  God.'  "  To  restore  to  man  that 
image,  Christ  came ;  and  if  transformed  by  his  power  we  shall 
in  very  truth  "be  like  him,"  and  "  shall  see  him  as  he  is." 

{b)  "  Male  and  female  created  he  them."  From  a  pair  was  the 
race  to  come,  the  world  to  be  peopled.  Of  one  blood  God  hath 
made  all  men,  to  dwell  upon  the  face  of  the  earth.  Related  thus 
in  his  bodily  nature,  by  the  wonderful  law  of  sex,  with  the 
creatures  about  him,  man's  soul  is  endowed  with  capacity  to 
rise  immeasurably  above  the  brute,  in  thought  to  wing  its  way 
to  God  and  immortality. 

{c)  Man  was  endued  with  intelligence,  sensibility,  and  will. 

Intelligence,  sensibility,  and  will  are  terms  used  to  designate 
the  soul's  power  to  put  forth  three  generically  different  kinds 
of  phenomena.  "The  soul  thinks,  feels,  wills.  Intelligence  desig- 
nates the  soul's  power  to  think  and  to  know;  sensibility,  its 
power  to  feel ;   will,  its  power  of  choosing,  and  putting  forth 


212         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

volitions.  It  is,  man,  thus  endowed,  "the  one  indivisible,  intel- 
ligent, self-conscious,  free  agent  that  thinks,  and  feels,  and 
chooses,  and  acts  from  choice." 

Thus  endowed,  man  is  conscious  of  his  mental  states  and 
activities,  and  conscious  of  their  relation  to  himself  as  their 
source,  and  conscious  of  freedom  in  relation  to  the  volitions  he 
puts  forth.  Thus  man  is  constituted  a  person,  "  a  being,"  says 
Mark  Hopkins,  "  who  knows  himself  as  the  .subject  of  phenom- 
ena, and  so  can  say  I."  "  This,"  adds  the  same  writer,  "  no 
being  below  man  can  do.  No  animal  can  do  it,  nor  the  sun,  nor 
the  stars ;  and  the  power  to  do  it  places  man  above  them  all. 
....  Finding  such  a  being,  we  find,  not  an  act,  but  its  source." 
Thus  does  man's  natural  endowment  render  him  necessarily  a 
subject  of  moral  law — that  is,  a  being  capable  of  experiencing 
good,  of  discerning  like  capacity  in  others,  and  the  means  of  its 
attainment  for  himself  and  others,  and  of  choosing,  and  acting 
from  choice,  with  reference  to  this  chief  end.  The  infinitely 
wise  Creator,  being  also  infinitely  good,  endowed  man  with 
capability  of  good,  wills  that  man  shall  seek  and  realize  the 
good  of  which  he  is  capable,  and  commands  him  so  to  do  ;  for 
he  "  wnlleth  not  the  death  of  any."  And  so  the  moral  law,  as 
issuing  from  man's  own  nature,  and  as  expressed  in  the  re- 
vealed will  of  his  Creator,  is  the  law  prescribing  and  command- 
ing that  course  of  action  which  issues  in  man's  own  highest 
good,  and  the  highest  good  of  all  other  sentient  creatures 
affected  by  his  actions. 

{d)  The  law  of  God  was  written  in  man's  heart.  The  passage 
cited  by  the  Confession,  in  proof  of  this  assertion,  is  Rom.  ii. 
14,  15 :  "  For  when  the  Gentiles,  which  have  not  the  law,  do  by 
nature  the  things  contained  in  the  law,  these,  having  not  the 
law,  are  a  law  unto  themselves :  which  show  the  work  of  the  law 
v\rritten  in  their  hearts,  their  conscience  also  bearing  witness, 
and  their  thoughts  the  meanwhile  accusing  or  else  excusing 
one  another." 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  213 

Perhaps  it  has  been  justly  observed  "  that  there  is  scarcely  in 
the  whole  New  Testament  any  greater  difficulty  than  the  ascer- 
taining the  various  meanings  of  vbiio^  (Jaw)  in  the  Epistles  of 
St.  Paul,"  and  the  passage  cited  is  one  on  which  expositors 
differ  widely.  Perhaps  the  passage  is  rightly  interpreted  to 
mean  that  'Hhe  voice  of  conscience,  which  proceeds  from  a  moral 
feeling  of  dislike  or  approbation,  and  the  judgment  of  the 
mind,  when  it  examines  the  nature  of  actions,  unite  in  testify- 
ing that  what  the  moral  law  of  God  requires,  is  impressed,  in 
some  good  measure,  even  on  the  hearts  of  the  heathen."  Of 
Adam  it  may  be  said  (i)  that  his  Creator  endowed  him  to  be  a 
subject  of  moral  law,  and,  (2)  that  out  of  the  nature  thus  be- 
stowed arose  the  law  of  his  behavior.  The  law  of  God  was 
thus  written  in  his  heart,  in  the  very  constitution  of  his  mental 
being.  In  the  absence  of  experience  and  of  the  knowledge 
that  would  come  only  bj-  the  study  of  his  powers,  it  was  all  the 
more  necessary  that  Adam  should  at  once  receive  a  revelation 
of  the  will  of  his  Maker  in  the  form  of  positive  instruction  and 
command. 

(<?)  Endowed  with  power  to  fulfill  the  law.  A  law  the}-  could 
not  have  fulfilled,  could  not  have  been  to  them  a  moral  law. 
Man  is  accountable  for  what  he  hath.  Our  first  parents  had 
power  to  choose,  and  to  act  from  choice,  among  the  several 
ends  within  their  knowledge,  and  discriminated  by  them  as 
right  or  wrong.  They  had  power  to  do  the  right,  to  turn  away 
from  the  wrong,  to  obey  the  commands  of  God.  Nothing 
within  them,  nothing  from  without,  acting  upon  them,  necessi- 
tated the  disobedience  that  brought  their  and  our  woe ;  for — 

(y)  They  were  made  upright  and  free  from  all  bias  to  evil. 

This  view  of  man's  original  endowment  vindicates  the  ways 
of  God  as  man's  Creator  and  Lawgiver,  and  affords  a  rational 
explanation  of  the  actual  condition  of  the  race.  Sin  is  a  fact. 
Freedom  of  will  is  an  experienced  fact.  Neither  by  force  of 
their  constitution,  nor  by  purpose  of  their  God,  secret  or  ex- 


214  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

pressed,  nor  by  their  environment  were  our  foreparents  neces- 
sitated to  disobey.  Of  choices  possible  to  them,  they  made  a 
sinful  choice  ;  and  so  sin  entered  the  world,  and  death  by  sin. 

4.  That  the  final  cause,  or  purpose,  of  the  creation  is  "  the 
manifestatio7i  of  the  eier7ial  power,  wisdom,  aiid  goodness  "  of  the 
Creator. 

If  we  regard  the  world  as  a  product  of  creative  wisdom  and 
goodness,  we  of  necessity  believe  that  the  world  was  created 
for  an  end,  or  purpose,  good  and  wise.  What  we  believe  this 
end  to  be  is,  as  Dr.  Hodge  observes,  a  question  of  the  highest 
importance.  "  Since  the  chief  end  of  every  system  of  means 
and  agencies  must  govern  and  give  character  to  the  whole  sys- 
tem, so  our  view  of  the  chief  end  of  God  in  his  works  must 
give  character  to  all  our  views  as  to  his  creative,  providential, 
and  gracious  dispensation.  Our  Confession  (Westminster)  very 
explicitly  takes  the  position  that  the  chief  end  of  God  in  his 
eternal  purposes,  and  in  their  temporal  execution  in  creation 
and  providence  is  the  manifestation  of  his  own  glory." 

"The  Scriptures  explicitly  assert,"  Dr.  Hodge  continues, 
"that  this  is  the  chief  end  of  God  in  creation,"  citing  in  proof 
Col.  i.  16  and  Prov.  xvi.  4,  neither  of  which  texts,  however,  is 
conclusive  proof  of  the  doctrine  in  its  Calvinistic  sense.  By 
other  theologians  it  is  maintained  that  "  God  proposed  for  him- 
self, as  his  ultimate  end,  the  promotion  of  the  happiness  of  his 
creatures."  The  two  conceptions  of  the  divine  purpose  in  the 
creation,  taken  in  their  relation  to  theological  systems,  lead  to 
widely  different  views  of  the  attributes  of  God  and  of  the  nat- 
ure and  design  of  the  gospel  provision  of  mercy.  According  to 
ithe  former  view,  God's  decrees  have,  likewise,  his  own  glory  as 
their  end,  and  so  his  providence  in  the  government  of  the 
world,  and  so  the  provision  of  salvation.  If  to  this  scheme  of 
thought  we  add  that  God  decrees  whatsoever  comes  to  pass,  we 
land  at  once  in  the  most  rigid  fatalism,  and  are  hopelessly  be- 
reft of  all  premises  from  which  to  predicate  freedom  of  will. 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH. 


215 


man's  responsibility,  the  distinction  between  virtue  and  wicked- 
ness, and  the  impartial  goodness  of  God. 

Surely  if  the  mind  of  God  is  at  all  opened  up  to  his  creatures, 
it  is  in  the  gracious  provision  for  man's  salvation,  and  it  is  ex- 
plicitly declared  that  "  God  so  loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his 
only  begotten  Son  that  whosoever  believeth  in  him  should  not 
perish,  but  have  everlasting  life."     Could  language  more  posi- 
tively or  plainly  assert  that  God's  purpose  in  sending  his  Son  is 
the  promotion  of  the  happiness  of  his  rational  creature  man  ? 
So,  we  must  believe,  God's  purpose  in  creation  was  to  bring 
about  the  happiness  that  would  come  through  a  universe  of 
creatures  rational  and  sentient.     Goodness   delights  in   happi- 
ness, and  seeks  to  multiply  it.     A  good  ruler  will  desire  and 
promote  the  happiness  of  his  subjects,  and  the  more  he  desires 
it  and  promotes  it,  the  more  will  he  glorify  his  own  wisdom  and 
goodness;  but  if  he  seeks  the  happiness  of  his  subjects  solely 
or  chiefly  to  manifest  his  own  glory,  then  does  he  not  love  good- 
ness and  happiness,  but  is  selfish  and  himself  not  good.     In 
places  and  phrases   almost   numberless  the   Bible   asserts   the 
goodness  of  God,  and  that  he  delighteth  not  in  the  suffering  or 
unhappiness  of  his  creatures.     It  is  Cumberland  Presbyterian 
doctrine,  that  God  loves  all  his  rational  creatures,  made  all  to  be 
happy,  and  provides  a  waj^  for  the  redemption  of  all  who  had 
through  sin  forfeited  happiness.     This  doctrine  glorifies  God  as 
he  is  seen  through  his  infinite  goodness.     Calvinism  glorifies  his 
infinite  sovereignty. 

According  to  the  Calvinistic  sj'stem,  "v/hatsoever  comes  to 
pass  "  is  not  only  as  God  decreed  it,  but  he  decreed  it  to  be  as  it 
is,  solely  to  promote  his  own  glory^ ;  and  that  this  divine  pur- 
pose holds  every  thing  in  absolute  bondage  to  an  omnipotent  de- 
cree reaching  from  the  inception  of  creation  to  man's  changeless 
state  in  heaven  or  hell.  Such  a  theological  system  is  not  char- 
acterized unjustW  in  the  following  words  of  Rev.  John  Miller,  of 
Princeton,  New  Jersey,  in  his  commentary  on  Romans  ix.  14,  15  : 


2l6  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

"  The  sovereignty  of  God,  which  even  infidels  are  inclining  to 
under  the  modern  naturalism,  has  been  frightfully  marred  by 
two  additions,  which  men  otherwise  good  have  rashly  made  to 
it.  One  is,  that  God  is  sovereign  over  the  actions  of  my  mind, 
which  he  undoubtedly  must  be  to  be  any  God  at  all,  and  shapes 
the  choices  of  his  sovereignty  for  the  display  of  his  perfections ; 
a  gospel  that  is  simply  horrible.  Hell  must  measure  its  depth 
of  mischief.  Atheists  have  attacked  it  with  zeal,  and  then  pre- 
tended they  were  attacking  Christianity.  We  are  indeed  taught 
that  God  does  every  thing  for  displa}^  (Psalm  viii.  i  ;  xxix.  9), 
but  always  as  a  gracious  instrument.  We  are  taught  that  this 
display  is  vital  for  our  Good  (Psalm  Ixiii.  2).  We  are  taught, 
therefore,  that  it  is  an  intermediate  end.  But  that  God  damns  a 
creature  for  display,  and  tliat  such  is  his  final,  and  therefore 
onl}'  and  in  itself  all-sufficient  and  absolutely  positive  and  nec- 
essary end,  must  sink  any  conceivable  system.  And  sadly 
enough,  the  same  men  who  teach  this  wickedness,  teach  another 
— namely,  that  this  self-adulating  conduct  of  the  universe  is 
sovereign  in  the  sense  of  naked,  stark,  and  absolute  pleasure  of 
the  governing  will."  To  view  the  creation  as  prompted  by  the 
display-motive,  and  such  display  as  having  no  basis  but  the 
mere-good-pleasure  of  the  Creator,  is  to  overlook  the  righteous- 
ness of  God  revealed  in  the  creation  and  the  gospel,  and,  as  the 
author  last  quoted  remarks,  "  reallj^  to  throw  away  the  beauty 
that  converts,  and  to  put  in  its  place  a  horror  which  repels  the 
perishing." 

It  is  the  writer's  clear  conviction  that  the  great  majority  of 
theologians  in  the  Cumberland  Presb3-terian  Church  heartily 
agree  in  rejecting  the  Calvinistic  interpretation  of  the  words  in 
which  our  book  expresses  the  final  end  of  God  in  the  creation. 
We  concur  in  the  sentiment  of  the  Rev.  John  Miller,  that 
"  God's  chief  end,  therefore,  in  creation  and  providence,  is  his 
own  infinite  holiness"  (not  the  display  of  holiness),  and  that 
"holiness  demands  the  highest  results  of  benevolence,  and  the 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  217 

highest  diffusion  of  holiness,  all  over  the  world  that  he  shall 
have  brought  into  being." 

After  all,  the  parties  to  this  controversy  as  to  what  is  the 
chief  end,  or  final  cause,  in  creation,  providence  and  grace,  may 
not  differ  so  widely,  when  once  all  are  fully  understood.  We 
can  quite  agree  with  Dr.  Hodge  that  "  the  highest  attainment  of 
this  supreme  end" — the  manifestation  of  God's  own  glory — 
"  carries  with  it  the  largest  possible  measure  of  good  to  the 
creature." 

We  hold,  however,  that  God  creates,  and  governs,  and  saves, 
to  promote  happiness  in  the  universe  he  creates;  and  thereby 
all  the  glory  accrues  to  God :  while  the  Calvinistic  system 
teaches  that  God  creates,  and  governs,  and  saves  some  and 
passes  by  others,  to  manifest  his  own  glory ;  and  that  "  the 
largest  possible  measure  of  good  to  the  creature,"  as  Dr.  Hodge 
puts  it,  accrues  only  because  that  is  the  best  way  of  displaying 
the  glory,  and  not  as  an  end  in  either  creation  or  salvation. 

But  to  show  how  an  eternal  unconditional  decree  to  "  pass 
by  "  some  of  the  human  race,  reprobating  them,  and  carrying 
them  inevitably  to  destruction,  can  "carry  with  it  "what  Dr. 
Hodge  calls  "  the  largest  possible  measure  of  good  to  the 
creature"  (to  these  creatures,  at  least),  is  an  undertaking  which 
no  system  of  theology  or  metaphysics  has  yet  achieved. 

If,  however,  in  accordance  with  what  is  called  the  law  of  the 
conditioning  and  the  conditioned,  we  look  upon  the  inanimate 
creation  as  existing  for  the  display  of  the  sentient  life  of  which 
it  is  a  grand  theater  ;  and  the  inanimate  and  the  lower  orders  of 
animated  nature  alike  as  existing  for  man ;  and  man  as  endowed 
with  intelligence,  sensibility,  will,  and  a  moral  nature  in  view  of 
happiness  as  the  chief  end  of  his  creation,  and  the  happiness 
which  arises  from  the  practice  of  virtue  as  the  crowning  and 
supreme  good  for  which  he  was  made,  then  are  we  prepared  to 
see  in  the  creation,  and  to  the  fullest  extent,  the  manifestation 
of  the  power,  wisdom,  and  goodness  of  God ;  and  thus  are  vv^e 


2l8  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

enabled  to  give  a  rational  explanation  of  the  last  point  in  our 
analysis,  namely : 

5.   That  the  creation  is  all  very  good. 

That  which  is  good  is  good  for  something,  or  because  it  serves 
some  valuable  end.  The  well-being  of  a  sentient  creature,  or 
its  happiness,  is  intrinsically  good;  and  the  happiness  which 
accrues  to  a  moral  being  from  the  practice  of  virtue  is  the 
crowning  intrinsic  good.  Whatever  promotes  intrinsic  good  is 
a  relative  good.  In  view  of  the  end  for  which  man  was  made, 
the  world  in  which  he  lives  is  very  good.  In  man  it  finds  its 
explanation.  Alike  in  body  and  mind  man  himself  displaj^s  the 
workmanship  of  a  Creator  infinitely  wise,  infinitely  good.  As 
ministering  to  his  wants,  the  world  in  which  he  lives  manifests 
the  same  wisdom  and  goodness.  Without  man  as  an  end 
toward  which  all  the  lower  stages  of  the  creation  worked,  and 
for  which  they  existed  or  now  exist,  the  world  can  not  be  called 
"  good  "  in  any  rational  or  moral  sense.  In  view  of  their  minis- 
tration to  man's  well-being  the  iron  in  the  mountains,  the  mar- 
ble in  the  quarry,  the  vast  magazines  of  coal  stored  up  thou- 
sands of  ages  ago  are  all  very  good.  This  earth  its  Maker  has 
given  to  man.  Man's  physical  organization  brings  him  into 
relation  to  his  material  abode,  enabling  him  to  know,  to  use,  to 
enjoy  it.  His  spiritual  nature  allies  him  to  God,  and  makes  him 
the  favored  one  of  all  earth's  creatures,  for  whose  weal  "  Heaven 
husbands  all  events."  For  man,  air,  water,  light  and  heat,  fruit 
on  the  boughs  of  the  trees,  fields  of  grain  ripened  by  summer 
suns,  and  ten  thousand  other  things  are  "good;  "  and  it  is  be- 
cause man  is  made  in  the  image  of  God  that  he  can  be  a  worker- 
together- with-God,  planting,  sowing,  improving  nature's  prod- 
ucts, opening  up  its  vast  store-houses  of  mineral  treasures, 
spanning  continents  with  iron  rails  and  traversing  all  seas  with 
ships,  in  order  to  gratify  his  desires  and  promote  his  well-being. 
Marvelous  indeed,  it  seems  to  us,  is  it  that  any  one  with  intelli- 
gence can  look  upon  this  creation   crowded  with  adaptations, 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  219 

and  fail  to  see  that  it  is  full  of  mind,  full  of  good,  full  of 
God. 

If  now  we  remember  that  man  has  sinned,  and  so  has  brought 
€vil  upon  himself;  that  in  consequence  of  this  moral  defection 
we  "  see  through  a  glass  darkly  "  in  our  efforts  to  understand 
the  creation  of  God ;  that  this  present  state  is  a  state  of  proba- 
tion and  discipline,  and  that  a  great  scheme  of  redemptive 
regeneration,  running  through  the  age,  is  to  issue  in  a  restora- 
tion typified  by  "  new  heavens  and  a  new  earth  "  with  purified 
and  glorified  man  subject  to  his  glorified  Redeemer  and  King, 
we  behold,  even  in  this  humble  province  of  God's  vast  empire,  a 
creation  truly  good,  over  which  morning  stars  may  sing  to- 
gether and  the  sons  of  God  shout  for  joy. 

Creation,  no  less  than  redemption,  proclaims  the  dignity  and 

worth  of  man :  "  Thou  madest  him  but  a  little  lower  than  the 

angels.     Thou  hast  crowned  him  with  glory  and  honor.     Thou 

hast  made  him  to  have  dominion  over  the  works  of  thy  hands. 

Thou  hast  put  all  things  in  subjection  under  his  feet."     Only 

man  was  made  in  the  image  of  God.     "Nothing  on  earth  is 

great,"  said  a  philosopher,  "but  man;  and  in  man,  nothing  is 

great  but  the  soul." 

"  Knowest  thou  the  worth  of  a  soul  immortal  ? 
Behold  the  midnight  glory !  worlds  on  worlds  ! 
Amazing  pomp  !  Redouble  this  amaze  ; 
Ten  thousand  add ;  add  twice  ten  thousand  more ; 
Then  weigh  the  whole  :  one  soul  outweighs  them  all, 
And  calls  the  astonishing  magnificence 
Of  unintelligent  creation,  poor."  > 


220  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 


CHAPTER  VII. 

PROVIDENCE. 

"  God  the  Creator  upholds  and  governs  all  creatures  and  things  by  his 
most  wise  and  holy  providence. 

"  God,  in  his  providence,  ordinarily  works  through  the  instrumentality 
of  laws  or  means,  yet  is  free  to  work  with  and  above  them,  at  his  pleasure. 

"  God  never  leaves  nor  forsakes  his  people ;  yet  when  they  fall  into  sin 
he  chastises  them  in  various  ways,  and  makes  even  their  own  sin  the  occa- 
sion of  discovering  unto  them  their  weakness  and  their  need  of  greater 
watchfulness  and  dependence  upon  him  for  supporting  grace. 

"  God's  providence  over  the  wicked  is  not  designed  to  lead  them  to  de- 
struction, but  to  a  knowledge  of  his  goodness  and  of  his  sovereign  power 
over  them,  and  thus  to  become  a  means  of  their  repentance  and  reforma- 
tion, or  to  be  a  warning  to  others;  and  if  the  wicked  make  it  an  occasion 
of  hardening  their  hearts,  it  is  because  of  their  perversity,  and  not  from 
necessity. 

"While  the  providence  of  God,  in  general,  embraces  all  creatures,  it 
does,  in  a  special  manner,  extend  to  his  church." — Confession  of  Faith. 

"  What  are  God's  works  of  providence  ? 

"  God's  works  of  providence  are  his  preserving  and  so  governing  his 
creatures,  and  overruling  their  actions,  as  to  manifest  his  wisdom,  power, 
and  goodness  in  promoting  their  welfare." — Catechism. 

T)ERHAPS  no  other  idea  so  generally  and  thoroughly  per- 
^  vades  man's  thinking  as  that  of  a  power  above  himself  by 
which,  in  some  manner,  and  to  some  extent,  he  is  affected  as  to 
his  surroundings,  his  conduct,  and  his  destiny.  This  sentiment 
is  common  to  the  peasant  and  the  philosopher.  History  and 
poetry  and  literature  are  full  of  it.  Everywhere  and  in  all  time 
it  has  threaded  the  creeds,  the  instructions,  the  worship  of  the 
wisest  and  best.  Our  hymns  and  prayers  and  sermons  are  full 
of  it,  and  our  ordinary  conversation  and  friendly  greetings  and 
farewells  bear  testimony  to  its  remarkable  hold  upon  the  mind 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  221 

and  heart  of  the  masses.  If,  from  his  own  finite  and  dependent 
nature,  the  contingent  and  transitory  world  in  which  he  lives, 
and  the  persistent  tendency  of  the  progress  of  human  affairs 
toward  ends  rational  and  moral,  man's  reason  necessarily  asserts 
a  Supreme  Intelligence  as  a  cause  of  the  universe,  in  like  man- 
ner does  man's  reason  assert  that  this  harmonious  progress  of 
the  universe  depends  on  guiding  and  governing  intelligence  and 
power  out  of  and  above  himself.  And  this  is  the  substance  of 
the  doctrine  of  providence. 

If  now  we  propose  an  inquiry  into  the  extent  and  the  means 
of  God's  providential  guidance  and  government  of  the  world,  we 
shall  find  an  almost  endless  diversity  of  view.  It  is  doubtful, 
indeed,  whether  anj'-  theologian  of  to-day  can  formulate  a  half  a 
score  of  propositions  defining  the  doctrine  of  providence,  which 
any  half  score  of  theologians  would  unqualifiedly  indorse.  Nor 
should  we  wonder  or  be  troubled  on  that  account,  for  its  very 
nature  is  such  that  the  subject  must  transcend  the  limits  of 
human  knowledge  and  human  reason.  No  doctrine  is  taught 
more  certainly,  however,  in  the  sacred  Scriptures,  nor  by  a 
greater  number  of  passages,  than  that  of  God's  providential  care 
and  guidance  of  the  world,  and  especially  of  his  people,  as  wit- 
ness the  following  texts : 

"  The  eyes  of  all  wait  upon  thee,  and  thou  givest  them  their 
meat  in  due  season."     Ps.  cxlv.  15. 

"His  kingdom  ruleth  over  all."     Ps.  ciii.  19. 

"  But  if  God  so  clothe  the  grass  of  the  field,  which  to-day  is, 
and  to-morrow  is  cast  into  the  oven,  shall  he  not  much  more 
clothe  you,  O  ye  of  little  faith?"     Matt.  vi.  30. 

"These  wait  all  upon  thee,  that  thou  may  est  give  them  their 
meat  in  due  season. 

"That  thou  givest  them  they  gather;  thou  openest  thine 
hand,  they  are  filled  with  good. 

"  Thou  hidest  thy  face,  they  are  troubled :  thou  takest  away 
their  breath,  they  die,  and  return  to  their  dust. 


222  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

"Thou  sendest  forth  thy  spirit,  the}-  are  created;    and  thou 
renewest  the  face  of  the  earth."     Ps.  civ.  27-50. 

"Thy  kingdom  is  an  everlasting  kingdom,  and  thy  dominion 
endureth  throughout  all  generations. 

"The  Lrord  upholdeth  all  that  fall,  and  raiseth  up  all  those 
that  be  bowed  down. 

"  Thou  openest  thine  hand  and  satisfiest  the  desire  of  ever>' 
living  thing."     Ps.  cxlv.  13-16. 

"Are  not  two  sparrows  sold  for  a  farthing?  and  not  one  of 
them  shall  fall  on  the  ground  without  your  Father. 

"  But  the  verj'  hairs  of  your  head  are  all  numbered. 

"  Fear  ye  not,  therefore ;  ye  are  of  more  value  than  many 
sparrows."     Matt.  x.  29-31. 

An  orthodox  theological  writer,  citing  numerous  passages  as 
authority-  for  his  views,  thus  summarizes  what  he  regards  the 
teaching  of  the  Bible  on  the  subject  of  providence:  "{a)  The 
preser^-ation  of  the  existence  of  all  things  depends  on  God  alone. 
(d)  God  is  the  ruler  and  proprietor  of  the  universe,  his  title  in 
it  being  founded  on  his  having  created  it.  {c)  The  state  and 
circumstance  of  all  created  things  are  determined  by  God ;  he 
needs  nothing,  but  his  creatures  receive  from  him  the  supply  of 
all  their  wants,  (d)  Nothing  is  so  insignificant  as  to  be  un- 
worthy of  his  notice :  his  providence  extends  even  to  the 
smallest  object,  [c)  Through  his  watchful  care  all  his  creatures, 
in  their  several  kinds,  enjoj'  as  much  good  as  from  their  nature 
they  are  susceptible  of.  (/)  But  his  providence  is  most  con- 
spicuous in  reference  to  the  human  race,  both  as  a  whole  and  as 
composed  of  individual  men.  He  preser^-es  their  lives,  provides 
them  with  food,  clothing,  and  everj-  thing  which  they  need. 
Their  actions  and  their  destinies  are  under  his  guidance  and  at 
his  disposal ;  and  their  race  is  preser\-ed  from  generation  to  gen- 
eration through  his  care.  The  whole  is  comprised  in  the  words 
of  Paul.  Acts  xvii.  28,  '  In  him  we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our 
being.' " 


CUMBERL.^ND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  223 

The  foregoing  scheme,  while  stating  in  a  general  way  the  main 
drift  of  the  popular  idea  as  to  the  relation  of  the  divine  provi- 
dence to  the  world,  is  not  wholly  free  from  objectionable  state- 
ments. The  author  of  it,  speaking  of  the  practical  uses  of 
these  representations,  says  that  "  they  furnish  us  with  the  means 
of  forming  just  notions  of  God,  and  with  motives  to  induce  us  to 
reverence  and  ser^-e  him.  .  .  .  Indeed,  the  whole  object  and  ten- 
dency of  this  doctrine,  as  exhibited  in  the  sacred  writings,  is  to 
excite  and  cherish  pious  dispositions  in  our  minds.  It  leads  us 
to  think  with  even.-  passing  event  that  God  knows  it ;  to  feel 
that  it  is  exactly  as  he  willed,  and  in  it  to  see  his  agency."  Now, 
that  God  knows  ever\-  event,  the  Scriptures  plainly  teach ;  but 
that  every  event  is  "  exactly  as  he  willed "'  is  what  man 3'  do  not 
believe,  and  what,  in  the  judgment  of  mam-,  the  Scriptures  no- 
where teach.  When  the  writer  quoted  goes  on  to  say  that  if  we 
were  dtdj-  affected  b}-  the  doctrine  of  providence  "our  constant 
maxim  would  be  nothing  without  God,''  he  is  guilty  of  sheer 
inconsistency,  for  the  assertion  implies  that  we  do  man}-  things 
without  God,  whereas  he  had  just  asserted  that  everj-  event  is 
just  as  God  willed  it.  Such  contradictions  defy  all  logical  juxta- 
position of  moral  ideas,  and  subject  the  whole  doctrine  of  pro\4- 
dence  to  doubt  in  the  minds  of  those  who  think  coherently,  but 
have  not  for  themselves  studied  thoroughly  what  the  Scriptures 
teach. 

In  its  relation  to  providence,  as  in  its  relation  to  grace, 
the  Calvinistic  unconditional  decree  of  absolute  di\'ine  predeter- 
mination of  whatsoever  comes  to  pass,  must  forever  and  hope- 
lesslj-  embarrass  any  and  everj-  rational  idea  of  a  moral  govern- 
ment of  the  world.  Materialistic  fatality  no  more  certainly 
annihilates  the  possibility-  of  moral  agency,  responsibility-,  and 
the  distinction  of  actions  as  ^-irtuous  or  sinful,  than  does  this 
vicious  theological  fatality-  which  Augustine  imported  from  hea- 
then philosophy.  If  to  the  declaration  that  even.-  event  occurs 
just  as  God  had  willed  it  we  add  the  comment  of  an  accepted 


224         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

expositor  of  the  Westminster  Confession,  that  "  God  not  only 
efi&caciously  concurs  in  producing  the  action,  as  to  the  matter  of 
it,  but  likewise  predetermines  the  creature  to  such  or  such 
an  action,  and  not  to  another,  shutting  up  all  other  ways  of 
acting,  and  leaving  that  only  open  which  he  had  determined  to 
be  done;"  and  that  "God  not  only  preserves  and  supports  the 
faculties  with  which  a  man  sins,  but  likewise  previously,  imme- 
diately, and  efficaciously  concurs  to  the  substance,  matter,  or 
entity  of  the  action;  "  and  that  "  the  sole  reason  why  any  thing 
comes  to  pass  is  because  God  has  decreed  it,"  we  have  a  scheme 
of  providence  fatalistic  to  the  extreme  of  divesting  the  infinite 
Jehovah  of  all  moral  attributes  as  a  governor  of  a  universe,  and 
leaving  him  without  any  moral  universe  to  govern.  And  since, 
according  to  this  scheme  of  providence,  no  event  could  fall  out 
otherwise  than  as  it  does,  it  is  apparent  that  it  can  be  of  no  pos- 
sible concern  to  man  whether  the  necessity  which  determines 
his  thoughts,  behavior,  and  destiny  lie  in  an  eternal,  uncondi- 
tional decree  of  God,  or  in  a  "material  necessity  of  all  things 
without  a  Deity,"  according  to  which  latter  view,  as  the  materi- 
alistic philosophy  now  puts  it,  our  thoughts  and  feelings  were  in 
the  fire-mist  millions  of  years  ago,  out  of  which  they  have  been 
evolved  by  the  operation  of  blind  cosmic  forces.  We  turn  with 
disgust  from  the  vices  ascribed  by  Greek  and  Roman  mytholo- 
gies to  their  long  list  of 

"  Gods,  partial,  changeful,  and  unjust, 
Whose  attributes  are  rage,  revenge  and  lust," 

but  by  this  false  scheme  of  providence  we  charge  the  Christian's 
God,  the  God  we  adore,  with  direct  agency  in  all  the  vices  and 
crimes  of  men. 

The  rejection  of  that  scheme  of  providence  which  in  its  rela- 
tion to  man  is  fatalistic,  is  not  the  rejection  of  the  doctrine  of 
providence.  The  fact  that  God  created  the  world  justifies  the 
assumption  that  he  governs  the  world.  There  is  abundant 
proof  that  both  creation  and  providence  look  to  ends  rational 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  225 

and  good,  and  from  these  ends,  as  seen  in  the  works  and  provi- 
dence of  God,  we  infer  his  wisdom  and  goodness.  We  believe 
that  the  world  exhibits  a  Creator  who  formed  the  creature  man 
to  be  a  rational  and  moral  agent,  who  endowed  him  with  the 
power  of  freedom  of  action  in  view  of  ends  in  themselves 
worthy,  and  thus  to  be  a  subject  of  moral  law,  and  that  the 
providence  of  God  respecting  man  has  made  man's  history,  as  it 
has  unfolded  through  the  sweep  of  centuries,  an  "increasing 
expression  and  illustration  and  demonstration  of  a  moral  pur- 
pose." Equally  manifest  is  it  that  a  unity  of  purpose,  ever  ex- 
panding and  rising,  holds  through  all  the  lower  stages  of  crea- 
tion up  to  man,  and  that  one  great  moral  purpose  is  now  carry- 
ing humanity  through  a  moral  progress  to  a  possible  goal  whose 
glories  and  grandeur  are  yet  but  dimly  foreshadowed.  On  this 
ground  most  of  all  it  is  that  the  idea  of  a  Creator  and  Ruler  of 
the  universe  most  powerfully  appeals  to  man's  reason  and  his 
sense  of  need.  It  is  undeniable,  also,  that  Christian  belief  in 
the  existence  of  God,  and  in  his  providence  over  the  world  is 
the  most  potent  of  all  causes  operating  to  direct,  sustain,  and 
augment  the  grand  progress  along  the  line  of  ethical  transfor- 
mation into  the  spiritual  and  the  heavenly.  That  faith  gone,  a 
thousand  good  influences  sustained  by  it  must  likewise  go,  and 
man  again  relapses  to  the  lower  plane  of  the  carnal,  doomed  to 
a  fruitless  search  among  the  beggarly  elements  for  that  which  is 
truly  good  and  satisfying. 

In  this  grand  moral  transformation,  generated  and  sustained 
and  directed  and  prophesied  by  Christian  faith  in  the  provi- 
dence of  God,  the  Christian  religion  manifests  a  most  wonder- 
ful contrast  to  all  other  systems  of  religion  or  philosophy 
known  to  the  world ;  and  this  contrast  finds  its  highest  expres- 
sion and  significance  when  we  take  into  account  the  mighty 
transformation  of  humanity,  past,  present,  and  prospective, 
through  the  redemptive  agency  peculiar  to  Christianity.  If  one 
will  impartially  and  suflSciently  reflect  upon  that  progress 
15 


226  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

through  the  centuries,  which  began  with  the  call  of  Abraham, 
and  has  reached  our  day,  with  millions  of  subjects — that  for 
ages  in  a  remarkable  manner  kept  a  people  separate  from  all 
other  nations — that  in  the  fullness  of  time  utterly  abrogated  a 
great  typical  system  burdened  with  rites  and  ceremonies,  to 
usher  in  and  establish  one  never  to  be  shaken— that  is  to-day 
sustained  by  agencies  and  potencies  vastly  superior  to  what  it 
ever  knew  in  the  past,  he  will  assuredly  conclude  that  such  a 
progress  can  no  more  be  accounted  for  without  a  moral  cause 
above  and  back  of  it  all  than  that,  without  a  cause,  the  great 
Mississippi,  dividing  our  continent  by  its  majestic  stretch,  flows 
continually  southward,  ever  widening  until  it  pours  its  silver 
flood  into  the  Gulf.  As  Christianity  is  a  fact,  divine  providence 
must  be  a  fact.  "Here,"  says  Dr.  Hitchcock,  "we  find  a  key  of 
the  history  of  other  ages  and  nations — a  thread  that  will  lead  us 
out  of  every  labyrinth  of  the  present  and  the  future.  Toward 
Calvary,  for  thousands  of  years,  all  the  lines  of  history  con- 
verged. And  now  for  other  thousands  of  years,  to  the  end  of 
time,  from  Calvary  will  the  lines  diverge,  till  '  the  kingdoms  of 
this  world  have  become  the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord,  and  he  shall 
reign  for  ever  and  ever.' " 

Turning  to  a  volume  of  the  sermons  of  a  minister  of  the  Prot- 
estant Episcopal  Church  who,  more  than  half  a  century  ago, 
was  of  the  class  called  powerful  preachers,  we  read :  "There  is  in 
all  of  us,  perhaps,  a  tendency  to  the  substituting  second  causes 
for  the  first,  to  the  so  dwelling  on  the  laws  of  matter,  and  the 
operations  of  nature,  as  to  forget,  if  not  deny,  the  continued 
agency  of  God.  If  our  creed  were  to  be  gathered  from  our 
common  forms  of  speech  it  might  be  concluded  that  we  re- 
garded nature  as  some  agent  quite  distinct  from  Deity,  having 
its  own  sphere,  and  its  own  powers,  in  and  with  which  to  work. 
We  are  wont  to  draw  a  line  between  what  we  call  natural  and 
what  supernatural ;  assigning  the  latter  to  an  infinite  power,  but 
ascribing  the  former  to  ordinary  causes,  unconnected  with  the 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  227 

immediate  interference  of  God.  .  .  .  We  do  not  indeed  suppose 
that  God  exerts  any  such  agency  as  to  supersede  the  laws  or 
nullify  the  properties  of  matter ;  but  we  believe  that  he  is  con- 
tinually acting  by  and  through  these  laws  and  properties,  as  his 
instruments,  and  not  that  these  laws  and  properties  are  them- 
selves effecting  the  various  occurrences  in  the  material  world. 
What  is  that  nature  of  which  we  rashly  speak  but  the  Almighty 
perpetually  at  work  ?  What  are  those  laws  of  matter,  to  which 
we  confidently  appeal,  and  by  which  we  explain  certain  phenom- 
ena, but  so  many  manifestations  of  infinite  power  and  intelli- 
gence?" And  so,  he  proceeds,  "I  reckon  that  the  hand  of  the 
Almighty  perpetually  guides  our  planet,  and  that  it  is  through 
his  energies,  momentarily  applied,  the  ponderous  mass  effects  its 
rotations" — that  "  Deity  is  busy  with  every  seed  that  is  cast  into 
the  ground,  and  that  it  is  through  his  immediate  agency  that 
every  leaf  opens,  and  every  flower  blooms,  .  .  .  that  pulse  suc- 
ceeds to  pulse  and  breath  follows  breath." 

According  to  views  expressed  in  the  last  cited  paragraph,  the 
forces  of  nature  are  but  the  divine  energy  manifesting  itself  in 
the  physical  world,  and  the  laws  of  nature  but  the  modes  and 
limitations  under  which  that  divine  energy  therein  manifests 
itself.  In  the  sense  in  which  any  thing  is  providential,  all 
things  are,  and  there  is  no  justification  for  the  distinction  of 
some  events  as  being  natural,  and  others  supernatural ;  for  all 
are  supernatural,  as  products  of  a  power  transcending  every 
thing  inherent  in  matter. 

From  the  view  which  regards  the  forces  operating  in  nature, 
to  bring  about  its  varied  phenomena,  as  the  immediate  operation 
of  the  will  of  God,  whether  propelling  a  planet  or  unfolding  a 
flower,  it  is  but  a  step  to  the  doctrine,  held  by  Melanchthon  and 
others  of  his  day,  and  not  wanting  in  current  theology,  that 
providence,  so  far  as  it  relates  to  the  preservation  of  the  world, 
is  a  continual  creation;  since,  as  it  is  alleged,  if  the  divine  sup- 
port were  for  a  moment  withdrawn,  the  world  would  revert  to 


228  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

nothing,  or  cease  to  exist.  It  is  certainly  not  a  long  step  from 
such  a  theory  of  providence  to  the  "all-God,"  a  kosmic  philos- 
ophy of  Spinoza,  according  to  which  there  is  no  universe  but 
God,  no  God  but  the  universe ;  which  asserts  that  "  God  alone  is 
mover  and  worker  of  all  things ;  all  creatures  do  their  work  not 
actively,  but  passively.  The  creature  acts  not,  but  is  acted  on ; 
as  God  works  through  each,  so  it  works;  the  creature  only 
holds  still,  and  is  passive  to  God.  .  .  .  For  the  bird  really  does 
not  sing  and  fly,  but  is  besung  and  borne  up  into  the  air ;  it  is 
God  that  lives,  sings,  moves,  and  flies  in  the  bird.  He  is  the 
essence  of  all  essences,  so  that  all  creatures  are  full  of  him, 
and  do  and  are  nothing  but  what  God  tells  and  wills."  And 
this  is  the  idea  of  divine  iynmayience  carried  to  its  extremest 
limit,  the  identification  of  God  and  nature,  the  resolution  of  all 
phenomena  into  immediate  and  direct  exertion  of  the  divine 
energy. 

"And  nature,  what  is  it,"  said  Zwingle,  "but  God's  unceasing 
and  perpetual  working  and  disposing  of  all  things?"  And  so 
Melanchthon  :  "  Human  infirmit)^  although  it  thinks  God  to  be 
a  Creator,  yet  it  imagines  that  afterward,  as  a  builder  goes  away 
from  the  ship  he  has  constructed,  and  commits  it  to  the  sailors, 
so  God  goes  awa}^  from  his  work,  and  leaves  his  creatures  to 
self-guidance.  In  opposition  to  these  errors,  our  minds  should 
be  steadfast  in  the  true  idea  of  the  creation,  namel}',  that  not 
only  were  things  made  bj-  God,  but  also  that  the  substances  of 
things  are  by  God  perpetually  kept  and  sustained.  God  is  pres- 
ent to  his  creature,  not  as  the  God  of  the  Stoics  is  present,  but 
as  acting  most  freely,  sustaining  the  creature,  and  guiding  it  in 
his  boundless  compassion,  bestowing  gifts,  furthering  or  re- 
straining secondary  causes."  Like  sentiments  were  held  by 
many  of  the  fathers  of  the  Greek  Church,  notably  by  Origen, 
Athanasius,  and  Clement  of  Alexandria,  who,  as  Mr.  Fiske  in 
his  Idea  of  God  asserts,  "regarded  Deity  as  immanent  in  the 
universe,  and  eternally  operating  through  natural  laws."     "In 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  229 

their  view,"  Mr.  Fiske  adds,  "  God  is  not  a  localizable  per- 
sonality, remote  from  the  world,  and  acting  upon  it  only  by 
means  of  occasional  portent  and  prodigy ;  nor  is  the  world  a  life- 
less machine  blindly  working  after  some  preordained  method, 
and  only  feeling  the  presence  of  God  in  so  far  as  he  now  and 
then  sees  fit  to  interfere  with  its  normal  course  of  procedure. 
On  the  contrary,  God  is  the  ever  present  life  of  the  world ;  it  is 
through  him  that  all  things  exist  from  moment  to  moment,  and 
the  natural  sequence  of  events  is  a  perpetual  revelation  of  the 
divine  wisdom  and  goodness."  As  shown  by  Professor  Allen  in 
his  Coniimdty  of  Christian  Thought,  Athanasius  pushed  his 
views  much  beyond  those  of  Clement  and  Origen,  viewing  the 
universe  through  the  scriptural  idea  of  a  divine  Trinitj'',  the 
eternal  Son  as  revealing  the  Father  immanent  in  nature,  while 
through  the  H0I3'  Spirit  is  revealed  the  spiritual  and  ethical 
character  of  the  manifested  Deity,  in  contradistinction  to  the 
idea  of  the  pantheistic  confusion  of  God  with  his  works,  and  as 
revealing  himself  in  humanit^^  in  the  highest  form,  "only  in  so 
far  as  humanity  recognized  its  calling,  and  through  the  Spirit 
entered  into  communion  with  the  Father  and  the  Son." 

It  is  claimed,  moreover,  by  those  who  interpret  the  doctrine 
of  providence  in  accordance  with  such  a  theory  of  God's  imma- 
nence in  the  universe  as  "binds  the  creation  to  God  in  the 
closest  organic  relationship,"  that  the  popular  idea  of  "physical 
forces"  as  inherent  in  matter  and  controlling  its  phenomena  is  a 
substitution  for  "  the  direct  action  of  the  Deit}^,"  of  that  which 
does  not  exist  and,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  can  not  exist. 
Thus,  speaking  of  gravitation,  which  is  imagined  only,  as  he 
alleges,  to  be  a  kind  of  "pull,"  Professor  Fiske  says:  "It  ex- 
plains that  in  the  presence  of  each  other  two  bodies  are 
obsenred  to  change  their  positions  in  a  certain  specified  way, 
and  this  is  all  that  it  means.  This  is  all  that  a  strictly  scientific 
hypothesis  can  possibly  allege,  and  this  is  all  that  obser^^ation 
can  possibly  prove.  .  .  .  An  atheistic  metaphysics  may  imagine 


230         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

such  a  'pull,'  and  may  interpret  it  as  the  action  of  something 
that  is  not  Deity,  but  such  a  conclusion  can  find  no  support  in 
the  scientific  theorem,  which  is  simply  a  generalized  description 
of  phenomena.  .  .  .  And  what  is  thus  obvious  in  this  simple, 
astronomical  example  is  equally  true  in  principle  in  every  case 
whatever,  in  which  one  set  of  phenomena  is  interpreted  by  an- 
other set." 

And  still  further,  it  is  urged  that  in  the  doctrine  of  evolution 
as  a  mode  of  creation  is  to  be  found  the  strongest  of  all  proofs 
of  an  immanent  God  as  the  working  force  in  nature.  After  ref- 
erence to  the  fact  that  Leibnitz  rejected  Newton's  theory  of 
gravitation  on  the  ground  that  it  seemed  to  him  to  substitute 
material  forces  for  the  power  of  Deity,  Professor  Fiske  goes  on 
to  say:  "The  theological  objection  urged  by  Leibnitz  against 
Newton  was  repeated  word  for  word  by  Agassiz  in  his  comments 
upon  Darwin.  He  regarded  it  as  a  fatal  objection  to  the  Dar- 
winian theory  that  it  appeared  to  substitute  the  action  of  phys- 
ical forces  for  the  creative  action  of  Deity.  The  fallacy  here  is 
precisely  the  same  as  in  Leibnitz's  argument.  Mr.  Darwin  has 
convinced  us  that  the  existence  of  highly  complicated  organ- 
isms is  the  result  of  an  infinitely  diversified  aggregate  of  cir- 
cumstances so  minute  as  severally  to  seem  trivial  or  accidental ; 
yet  the  consistent  theist  will  alwa5's  occupy  an  impregnable 
position  in  maintaining  that  the  entire  series  in  each  and  every 
one  of  its  incidents  zV  an  immediate  ma7iifestatio7i  of  the  creative  act 
of  Godr 

To  some  of  our  readers  it  will  doubtless  seem  that  we  have 
dwelt  too  long  in  this  attempt  to  explain  theories  quite  remote 
from  the  ordinary  conception  of  the  doctrine  of  divine  provi- 
dence. These,  however,  are  questions  of  profound  interest  to 
those  willing  to  reflect  upon  this  subject  of  greatest  possible 
concern  to  man.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  sacred  writers, 
as  a  rule,  refer  all  physical  phenomena  immediately  to  the  divine 
agency,  according  to  whom  God  sends  the  rain,  causes  the  sun 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  23  I 

to  shine,  clothes  the  fields  with  pastures ;  stars  and  constella- 
tions of  stars  perform  their  revolutions  through  his  immediate 
agency,  and  he  opens  his  hand  to  satisfy  the  needs  of  all  living 
things.  This  absence  of  reference  to  "secondary  causes"  has 
been  attributed  to  their  ignorance  of  such  causes— and  they  cer- 
tainly were  in  a  large  measure  ignorant  of  secondary  causes  as 
modern  science  conceives  them — but  now  it  turns  out  that  many 
of  the  profoundest  thinkers  of  to-day,  including  not  a  few  scien- 
tists, tell  us  that  between  the  phenomena  about  us,  and  the 
"direct  action  of  Deity,"  they  can  find  nothing  that  corresponds 
to  the  ordinary  conception  of  an  eflScient  secondary  cause.  If 
this  theory  be  correct,  the  Bible  receives  amazing  confirmation 
in  the  fact  that  while  it  gives  to  the  world  a  system  of  ethical 
teaching  incomparably  superior  to  that  derived  from  any  other 
source,  its  writers,  who  make  no  claims  to  scientific  knowl- 
edge, and  have  been  supposed  to  have  had  little  or  none,  yet 
spoke  in  complete  accord  with  a  theory  now  gaining  wide  accept- 
ance as  a  rational  explanation  of  the  universe.  The  doctrine 
of  the  existence  of  God,  of  creation,  of  providence,  receives  pro- 
found significance  and  illustration  in  the  most  advanced  scien- 
tific disclosures  of  to-day. 

But  quite  a  different  theory  of  the  nature  of  the  universe  and 
of  the  Creator's  relation  to  the  universe  claims  our  attention,  as 
furnishing  a  basis  for  a  different  interpretation  of  the  doctrine 
of  providence,  and,  on  the  part  of  some,  to  a  total  denial  of  the 
doctrine.  This  theory  asserts  that  the  Creator  endowed  his  cre- 
ation with  such  attributes  that  it  is  not  only  self-sustained,  but 
that  all  its  phenomena  come  about  through  the  operation  of  the 
secondary  causes  now  operative  in  the  universe,  and  inherent  in 
it  as  impressed  by  the  Creator.  It  tells  us,  in  fact,  in  its  most 
mechanical  aspect,  that  for  the  last  million  of  years  all  things — 
miracles  aside,  if  such  things  ever  occurred — the  course  of  nat- 
ure would  have  been  precisely  what  it  has  been,  had  the  Creator 
been  asleep.     It  will  be  seen  that  this  is  complete  opposition  to 


232  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

the  theory  that  makes  the  continuance  of  the  universe  a  con- 
tinual creation,  and  all  its  phenomena  dependent  on  the  imme- 
diate agency  of  an  immanent  Creator.  To  such  a  structure  of 
the  universe  the  atheist  indeed  holds,  but  admits  no  cause  out- 
side of  eternally  existent  matter  and  its  inherent  potencies. 
Deism  admits  the  creation  of  the  world,  but  denies  a  conserving 
and  governing  providence.  Christian  theists  admit  the  uniform 
operation  of  natural  causes,  some  affirming  that  only  through 
these  God  exercises  his  providence  over  the  world,  while  others 
believe  that  some  events  come  about  through  a  suspension  of 
the  operation  of  natural  causes,  and  b)'  the  immediate  interposi- 
tion of  divine  agency. 

Such,  it  is  claimed,  is  the  conception  of  the  universe,  as 
shown  in  a  preceding  chapter,  which  the  genius  of  Augustine 
fastened  upon  the  Western  world,  in  opposition  to  the  teachings 
of  the  Greek  fathers — Clement,  his  pupil  Origen,  and  Athana- 
sius.  "Obviously,"  says  Prof  Fiske,  "if  Leibnitz  and  Agassiz 
had  been  educated  in  that  higher  theism  phased  by  Clement  and 
Athanasius  in  ancient  times,  if  they  had  been  accustomed  to 
think  of  God  as  immanent  in  the  universe  and  eternally  cre- 
ative, ....  to  conceive  of  '  physical  forces '  as  powers  of  which 
the  action  could  in  anywise  be  '  substituted '  for  the  action  of 
Deity  would  in  such  case  have  been  absolutely  impossible.  The 
higher,  or  Athanasian,  theism  knows  nothing  of  secondary 
causes  in  a  world  where  every  event  flows  directly  from  the 
eternal  First  Cause.  It  knows  nothing  of  physical  forces  save 
as  immediate  manifestations  of  the  omnipresent  creative  power 
of  God.  In  the  personification  of  physical  forces,  and  the 
implied  contrast  between  their  action  and  that  of  Deity,  there  is 
something  very  like  the  survival  of  the  habits  of  thought  which 
characterized  ancient  polytheism." 

The  reader,  anxious  to  come  at  the  truth,  will  thank  us  for  the 
following  additional  citation  from  Prof.  Fiske,  as  further  illus- 
trating the  widely  different  conceptions  of  the  universe,  and  the 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  233 

not  less  widely  different  views  of  divine  providence  to  which  they 
severally  lead:  "The  subject  is  of  such  immense  importance 
that  I  must  illustrate  it  from  yet  another  point  of  view.  We 
must  observe  the  manner  in  which,  along  with  the  progress  of 
scientific  discovery,  theological  arguments  have  come  to  be  per- 
meated by  the  strange  assumption  that  the  greater  part  of  the 
universe  is  godless.  Here  again  we  must  go  back  for  a  moment 
to  the  primeval  world  and  observe  how  behind  every  physical 
phenomenon  there  were  supposed  to  be    quasi-human  passion 

and  quasi-human  will After  many  ages  of  culture,  men 

ceased  to  regard  the  familiar  and  regularly  recurring  phenomena 
of  nature  as  immediate  results  of  volition,  and  reserved  this 
primeval  explanation  for  unusual  or  terrible  phenomena,  such 
as  comets  and  eclipses,  or  famines  and  plagues.  As  the  result 
of  these  habits  of  thought,  in  course  of  time.  Nature  seemed  to 
be  divided  into  two  antithetical  provinces.  On  the  one  hand, 
there  were  the  phenonena  that  occurred  with  a  simple  regularity 
which  seemed  to  exclude  the  idea  of  capricious  volition;  and 
these  were  supposed  to  constitute  the  realm  of  natural  law.  On 
the  other  hand,  there  were  the  complex  and  irregular  phenom- 
ena in  which  the  presence  of  law  could  not  be  so  easily  detected, 
and  these  were  supposed  to  constitute  the  realm  of  immediate, 
divine  action.  This  antithesis  has  forever  haunted  the  minds  of 
men  imbued  with  the  lower,  or  Augustinian,  theism ;  and  such 
have  made  up  the  larger  part  of  the  Christian  world.  It  has 
tended  to  make  the  theologians  hostile  to  science,  and  the  men 
of  science  hostile  to  theology.  For  as  scientific  generalization 
has  steadily  extended  the  region  of  natural  law,  the  region 
which  theology  has  assigned  to  divine  action  has  steadily  dimin- 
ished  Still,  as  of  old,  the  ordinary  theologian  rests  his 

case  upon  the  assumption  of  disorder,  caprice,  and  miraculous 
interference  with  the  course  of  nature.  A  desperate  fight  it  has 
been  for  some  centuries,  in  which  science  has  won  every  dis- 
puted position,  while  theology,  untaught  by  perennial  defeat. 


234         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

Still  valiantly  defends  the  little  corner  that  is  left  it It  is 

not  science  that  is  responsible  for  the  mischievous  distinction 
between  divine  action  and  natural  law.  That  distinction  is  his- 
torically derived  from  a  loose  habit  of  philosophizing  character- 
istic of  ignorant  ages,  and  was  bequeathed  to  modern  times  by 
the  theology  of  the  I,atin  Church.  Small  blame  to  the  atheist 
who,  starting  upon  such  a  basis,  thinks  he  can  interpret  the  uni- 
verse without  the  idea  of  God !  He  is  but  doing  the  best  he 
knows  how,  with  the  materials  given  him.  One  has,  however, 
but  to  adopt  the  higher  theism  of  Clement  and  Athanasius,  and 
this  alleged  antagonism  between  science  and  theology-,  by  which 
so  many  hearts  have  been  saddened,  so  many  minds  darkened, 
vanishes  at  once  and  forever.  '  Once  really  adopt  the  conception 
of  an  ever-present  God,  without  whom  not  a  sparrow  falls  to  the 
ground,  and  it  becomes  self-evident  that  the  law  of  gravitation 
is  but  an  expression  of  a  particular  mode  of  divine  action. 
And  what  is  thus  true  of  one  law  is  true  of  all  laws.'  The 
thinker  in  whose  mind  divine  action  is  thus  identified  with 
orderly  action  ....  foresees  in  everj'^  possible  extension  of 
knowledge  a  fresh  confirmation  of  his  faith  in  God;  ....  and 
each  act  of  scientific  explanation  but  reveals  an  opening 
through  which  shines  the  glorj'^  of  the  Eternal  Majesty." 

These  are  important  ideas  expressed  in  Prof  Fiske's  clear  and 
energetic  style ;  but  he  seems  .to  us  to  carry  his  theory  much 
beyond  the  teaching  of  the  Greek  fathers  he  esteems  orthodox, 
and  to  be  more  nearly  at  one  with  Goethe  and  Spinoza.  Origen 
expressly  declares  that  when  we  say  "  the  providence  of  God 
regulates  all  things,"  we  utter  a  great  truth  if  we  attribute  to 
that  providence  nothing  but  what  is  just  and  right.  But  if  we 
■ascribe  to  the  providence  of  God  all  things  whatsoever,  however 
■unjust  they  may  be,  then  it  is  no  lo7iger  true  that  the  providence 
of  God  regulates  all  things,  unless  we  refer  directly  to  God's 
providence  things  which  flow  as  results  from  his  arrangements. 
And  this  he  said  in  refutation  of  Celsus,  who  had  asserted  that 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  235 

"  since  every  event  falls  out  (as  Prof.  Fiske  teaches)  by  the  agency 
of  God,  and  demons  and  heroes  were  therefore  but  powerful 
agents  doing  the  commands  of  the  Most  High,  it  is  right  to  wor- 
ship those  heroes  and  demons." 

The  discussion  of  the  subject  has  brought  us  to  a  point  where 
it  is  not  unsuitable  to  state  formally  three  theories  of  the  uni- 
verse which  render  it  utterly  and  hopelessly  fatalistic : 

1.  The  atheistic  theory,  which  teaches  that  the  sole  substance 
of  the  universe  is  matter,  and  that  all  phenomena,  including  our 
sensations,  thoughts,  feelings,  and  volitions,  as  well  as  the  fall 
of  a  rain  drop  or  the  revolution  of  a  planet,  are  but  an  endless 
series  of  combinations  and  movements  transpiring  by  the  opera- 
tion of  blind,  unconscious  forces  inherent  in  matter. 

2.  The  theory  which  refers  every  event,  including  our 
thoughts  and  volitions,  as  does  Prof.  Fiske,  to  the  direct  and 
immediate  agency  of  God  as  their  efficient  cause. 

3.  The  theory  which  makes  the  universe  indeed  a  product  of 
creative  power,  but  so  constituted  and  endowed  that  every  event 
falls  out  through  the  operation  of  forces  divinely  impressed 
upon  its  several  substances,  while  every  event  falls  out  also  nec- 
essarily, and  necessarily  just  as  it  is,  because  of  an  eternal, 
divine  decree  determining  whatsoever  comes  to  pass. 

Among  the  advocates  of  the  third  scheme  is  to  be  found  Dr. 
McCosh,  a  leading  theologian  and  philosopher  in  current  discus- 
sions of  religious  problems,  who  says : 

"As  entertaining  this  view  of  the  perfection  of  the  original 
•constitution  of  all  things,  we  see  no  advantage  in  callingin  spe- 
cial interpositions  of  God  acting  without  physical  causes— always 
■excepting  the  miracles  employed  to  attest  divine  revelation. 
Speaking  of  the  ordinary  providences  of  God,  we  believe  that 
the  fitting  of  the  various  parts  of  the  machinery  is  so  nice  that 
there  is  no  need  of  any  interference  with  it.  We  believe  in  an 
original  disposition  of  all  things ;  we  believe  that  in  this  dispo- 
sition there  is  provided  an  interposition  of  one  thing  in  refer- 


236  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

ence  to  another,  so  as  to  produce  the  individual  effects  which 
God  contemplates ;  but  we  are  not  required  by  philosophy  nor 
religion  to  acknowledge  that  there  is  subsequent  interposition 
by  God  with  the  original  dispositions  and  interpositions  which 
he  has  substituted.  '  This  is,  in  fact,  the  great  miracle  of  pror- 
idence,  that  no  miracles  are  needed  to  accomplish  its  pur- 
poses.' " 

This  passage  Dr.  McCosh  follows  with  a  quotation  from  lycib- 
nitz,  who  says : 

"  God  has  provided  every  thing,  he  has  remedied  every  thing 
beforehand.  There  is  in  his  works  a  harmony,  a  beauty,  already 
pre-established.  This  opinion  does  not  at  all  exclude  the  provi- 
dence or  the  government  of  God.  A  true  providence  on  the 
part  of  God  demands  a  perfect  foreknowledge ;  but  it  demands 
not  only  that  he  has  foreseen  every  thing,  but  also  that  he  has 
provided  for  every  thing — otherwise  he  is  deficient  either  of  the 
wisdom  to  foresee  or  the  power  to  provide." 

"We  see  no  advantage,"  says  Dr.  McCosh,  "to  be  gained  to 
religion  by  insisting  that  the  ordinary  events  in  the  common 
providence  of  God  can  have  no  second  cause,"  following  his 
statement  with  this  passage  from  Bacon  : 

"  For  certain  it  is  that  God  worketh  nothing  in  nature  but  by 
second  causes ;  and  if  they  would  have  it  otherwise  believed,  it 
is  mere  imposture,  as  it  were,  in  favor  toward  God,  and  nothing 
else  but  to  offer  to  the  Author  of  truth  the  unclean  sacrifice  of  a 
lie.  But  farther,  it  is  an  assured  truth  that  a  little  or  superficial 
knowledge  of  philosophy  may  incline  the  mind  to  atheism,  but 
a  farther  proceeding  therein  doth  bring  the  mind  back  to  relig- 
ion ;  for  in  the  entrance  of  philosophy  when  the  second  causes 
which  are  next  unto  the  senses  do  offer  themselves  to  the  mind 
of  man,  if  it  dwell  and  stay  there,  it  may  induce  some  oblivion 
of  the  highest  cause ;  but  when  a  man  passeth  on  farther,  and 
seeth  the  dependence  of  causes  and  the  works  of  providence, 
then,    according  to   the   allegory   of  the  poets,  he  will  easily 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  237 

believe  that  the  highest  link  of  nature's  chain  must  needs  be 
tied  to  the  foot  of  Jupiter's  chair." 

But,  so  far  as  relates  to  the  quoted  paragraphs,  neither  Bacon 
nor  Leibnitz  nor  McCosh  gives  us  any  information  as  to  how 
God  guides  and  governs  the  world  through  the  uniform  opera- 
tion of  invariable  secondarj^  causes,  in  an}'  sense  corresponding 
to  the  popular  Christian  doctrine  of  providence.     The  "  original 
disposition  of  all  things,"  of  which  Dr.  McCosh  speaks,  to  be 
realized  in  the  unfolding  of  earth's  history  solely  by  the  opera- 
tion of  natural  causes — the   miracles  in  attestation   of  divine 
inspiration  excepted — is  the  same  predetermination  of  all  things 
asserted  in  the  theological  dogma,  that  "  God  from  all  eternity 
did  bj'  the  most  wise  and  hoi}'  counsel  of  his  own  will,  freely 
and  unchangeabl}'  ordain  whatsoever  comes  to  pass,"  by  which 
"  decree  of  God,  for  the  manifestation  of  his  glory,  some  men 
and  angels  are  predestined  unto  everlasting  life,  and  others  fore- 
ordained to  everlasting  death."     Every  thing,  thus,   is   indeed 
"  providential,"  or  predetermined,  by  the  absolute  decree — the 
exact  number  of  human  beings  to  exist  upon  the  earth  and  the 
destin}'  of  every  one ;    the  number  of  sermons  to  be  preached, 
pra5"ers  to  be  said,  songs  to  be  sung,  and  curses  to  be  uttered; 
the  number  of  thefts,  suicides,  and  murders ;    the  exact  number 
of  drops  of  water  to  be  in  each  particular  ocean,  of  leaves  to  be 
on  each  individual  tree,  of  times  that  each  individual  human 
being   is   to  draw  his  breath — all  was  predetermined  eternally 
and  unchangeabl}',  in  view  of  which  the  Creator  so  constituted 
the  universe,  that  through  the  action  and  interaction  of  natural 
forces,  or  secondary  causes,  it  would  work  out  the  stupendous 
scheme  of  necessity.     Did  Leibnitz  or  anj'-  other  of  the  necessi- 
tarians or  fatalists  of  kis  day  ever  dream  of  a  world  from  top  to 
bottom  more  fatalistic  than  that  embraced  in  this  scheme  of 
providence  ? 

The  scheme  of  Dr.  McCosh  teaches  that  God  did  not  by  direct 
agency  raise   the  storm  which   wrecked   the  Spanish  Armada 


238  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

when  it  threatened  the  liberty  and  the  religion  of  England,  nor 
calm  the  wind  to  the  favoring  breezes  which  enabled  William  of 
Orange  to  escape  the  hostile  fleet  about  to  seize  him,  but  rather 
that  God  had  so  prearranged  the  operation  of  natural  causes  as 
to  bring  about  the  beneficent  and  pre-determined  results.     But 
God's  providence  has  respect,  he  tells  us,  to  the  most  minute 
event,  as  well  as  to  the  greatest.     These  references  sufi&cientlj'^ 
define  his  views,  to  which  we  have  taken  exception  because,  as 
it  seems  to  us,  they  bind  human  volitions  and  actions  by  divine 
necessity,  or  decree  of  providence,  and  hence,  leave  no  basis  for 
any  rational  scheme  of  moral  government — the  very  end  for 
which  all  lower  providential  arrangements  exist,  and  from  which 
they  derive  their  chief  glory.     Perhaps  no  living  writer  has  ren- 
dered the  cause  of  evangelical  truth  more  valuable  service  than 
has  the  venerable  author  whom  we  have  quoted,  but  his  views 
on  this  subject  are,  to  say  the  least,  far  from  satisfying.     While 
every  event  comes  about  through  the  operation  of  proximate 
natural   causes,  as  Dr.  McCosh  tells  us,  he  finds  a  sphere  for 
providential  control  in  those  events  it  is  not  in  man's  power  to 
foresee,  or   what  he  calls  the  "  complications  and  fortuities  of 
nature."     But  it  is  only  because  of  man's  inabilit}^  to  calculate 
these  fortuities  that  they  stand  in  a  relation  to  him  at  all  differ- 
ent from  that  sustained  by  events  dependent  on  conditions  he 
can  readily  understand.     "As  we  come  closer  to  man,"  says  Dr. 
McCosh,  "  the  elements  of  uncertainty  increase.     How  uncertain 
are  all  the  events  on  which  man's  bodily  and  external  welfare 
depends !  ....  A  change  takes  place  in  the  atmosphere  which 
the  individual  breathes,  and  quickens  into  life  a  malady  which 
wastes  the  lungs  and  frame  till  it  ends  in  dissolution.     A  partic- 
ular vital  vessel  bursts,  and  instant  death  follows.     A  derange- 
ment takes  place  in  the  nerves  or  the  brain,  and  henceforth  the 
mind  itself  reels  and  staggers.     It  appears  that  the  uncertainty 
increases  the  nearer  we  come  to  man,  and  there  is  nothing  so 
uncertain  as  bodily  health  and  human  destiny."     Thus,  accord- 


CUMBERI.AND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.       239 

ing  to  this  theory,  the  world  is  more  largely  providential  with 
respect  to  human  life  and  destiny,  than  in  any  other  respect. 
Providence  is  thus  made  dependent  on  uncertainty,  and  uncer- 
tainty is  wholly  relative  to  man's  limited  knowledge,  for  events 
seemingly  the  most  fortuitous  are  but  the  necessary  results  of 
natural  causes,  and,  not  only  so,  but  were  eternally  decreed  to 
fall  out  as  they  do,  w^hen  they  do,  where  they  do.  This  theory 
seems  to  us  quite  a  last  shift  to  save  the  doctrine  of  a  divine 
providence.  Besides,  man's  welfare  is  dependent,  to  a  very 
large  extent,  upon  conditions  it  is  in  his  power  to  control ;  and 
man's  bodily  health  and  destiny,  instead  of  being  the  most 
uncertain  of  all  things,  are,  with  all  the  sanitary  science  now 
possible,  and  man's  own  willful  vices  and  follies  aside,  among 
the  things  most  nearly  certain. 

To  the  thoughtful  reader  we  shall  need  to  offer  no  apology  for 
further  illustrating  the  view  last  presented,  and  enriching  these 
pages,  by  the  following  lengthy  passage  from  The  Natural  His- 
tory of  Enthusiasm,  by  Rev.  Isaac  Taylor,  a  writer  of  rare  excel- 
lence of  spirit  and  of  unusual  metaphysical  acumen.  Having 
referred  to  the  "  substantial  if  not  immovable  substratum  of 
causes  and  effects,  upon  which,  for  the  important  and  practical 
purposes  of  life,  calculations  of  futurity  may  be  formed,"  Taylor 
says : 

"The  second,  and  the  less  numerous,  class  of  events  that 
make  up  the  course  of  human  life  are  those  which  no  sagacity 
could  have  anticipated;  for  though  in  themselves  they  were 
only  the  natural  consequences  of  common  causes,  yet  those 
causes  were  either  concealed  or  remote,  and  were,  therefore,  to 
us  and  our  agency  the  same  as  if  they  had  been  absolutely  for- 
tuitous. By  far  the  larger  proportion  of  these  accidents  arises 
from  the  intricate  connections  of  the  social  system.  The 
thread  of  every  life  is  entangled  with  other  threads  beyond  all 
reach  of  calculation,  the  weal  and  woe  of  each  depends,  by  innu- 
merable correspondences,  upon  the  will,  and  caprices,  and  fort- 


240  DOCTE.INES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

une,  not  merely  of  the  individuals  of  his  immediate  circle,  but 
those  of  myriads  of  whom  he  knows  nothing.  Or,  strictly 
speaking,  the  tie  of  mutual  influence  passes  without  a  break, 
from  hand  to  hand,  through  the  human  family.  There  is  no 
independence,  no  insulation  in  the  lot  of  man ;  and  therefore 
there  can  be  no  absolute  calculation  of  fortunes ;  for  he  w^hose 
caprice  or  will  is  to  govern  that  lot,  stands,  perhaps,  at  the  dis- 
tance of  a  thousand  removes  from  the  subject  of  it,  and  the 
attenuated  influence  winds  its  \vay  in  a  thousand  meanders 
before  it  reaches  the  point  of  its  destined  operation. 

"  It  is  by  the  admirable  combination  of  the  two  principles  of 
order  and  disorder,  of  uniformity  and  variety,  of  certainty  and 
of  chance,  that  the  faculties  and  desires  are  wrought  up  to  their 
full  play  of  energy  and  vivacity,  of  reason  and  feeling.  But  it 
is  especially  in  connection  with  the  doctrine  of  providence  that 
we  have  at  present  to  consider  these  two  elements  of  human 
life ;  and  as  to  the  first  of  them,  it  is  evident  that  the  settled 
order  of  causes  and  efiects,  so  far  as  it  may  be  ascertained  by 
observation  and  experience,  claims  the  respect  and  obedience  of 
every  intelligent  agent ;  since  it  is  nothing  less  than  the  wall  of 
the  Author  of  nature,  legibly  written  upon  the  constitution  of 
the  world.  This  will  is  sanctioned  b}^  immediate  rewards  and 
punishments ;  health,  wealth,  prosperity,  are  the  usual  conse- 
quents of  obedience ;  while  sickness,  poverty,  degradation,  are 
the  almost  certain  inflictions  that  attend  a  negligent  interpreta- 
tion, or  a  presumptuous  disregard  of  it.  The  dictates  of  pru- 
dence are  in  truth  the  commands  of  God ;  and  his  benevolence 
is  vindicated  by  the  fact  that  the  miseries  of  life  are,  to  a  very 
great  extent,  attributable  to  a  contempt  of  those  commands. 

"  But  there  is  a  higher  government  of  men,  as  moral  and 
religious  beings,  which  is  carried  on  chiefly  by  the  fortuities  of 
life.  Those  unforeseen  accidents,  which  so  often  control  the  lot 
of  men,  constitute  a  superstratum  in  the  system  of  human 
afiairs,  wherein,  peculiarly,  the  divine  providence  holds  empire 


CUMBERIvAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  24 1 

for  the  accomplishment  of  its  special  purposes.  It  is  from  this 
hidden  and  inexhaustible  mine  of  chances — chances,  as  we  must 
call  them — that  the  Governor  of  the  world  draws,  with  unfath- 
omable skill,  the  materials  of  his  dispensation  toward  each  indi- 
vidual of  mankind.  The  world  of  nature  affords  no  instances 
of  complicated  and  exact  contrivance  comparable  to  that  which 
so  arranges  the  vast  chaos  of  contingencies  as  to  produce,  with 
unerring  precision,  a  special  order  of  events  adapted  to  the 
character  of  every  individual  of  the  human  family.  Amid  the 
whirl  of  myriads  of  fortuities,  the  means  are  selected  and  com- 
bined for  constructing  as  many  independent  machineries  of 
moral  discipline  as  there  are  moral  agents  in  the  world ;  and 
each  apparatus  is  at  once  complete  in  itself  and  complete  as  part 
of  a  universal  movement. 

"  If  the  special  intentions  of  Providence  toward  individuals 
were  effected  by  the  aid  of  supernatural  interpositions,  the 
power  and  presence  of  the  Supreme  Disposer  might  indeed  be 
more  strikingly  displayed  than  it  is ;  but  his  skill  much  less. 
And  herein  especially  is  manifested  the  perfection  of  the  divine 
wisdom,  that  the  most  surprising  conjunctions  of  events  are 
brought  about  by  the  simplest  means,  and  in  a  manner  so  per- 
fectly in  harmony  with  the  ordinary  course  of  human  affairs  that 
the  hand  of  the  Mover  is  ever  hidden  beneath  second  causes, 
and  is  descried  only  by  the  eye  of  pious  affection.  This  is,  in 
fact,  the  great  miracle  of  Providence — that  no  miracles  are 
needed  to  accomplish  its  purposes.  Countless  series  of  events 
are  traveling  on  from  remote  quarters  toward  the  same  point ; 
and  each  series  moves  in  the  beaten  track  of  natural  occur- 
rences ;  but  their  intersection  at  the  very  moment  in  which  they 
meet  shall  serve,  perhaps,  to  give  a  new  direction  to  the  affairs 
of  an  empire.  The  materials  of  the  machinery  of  Providence 
are  all  of  common  quality ;  but  their  combination  displays  noth- 
ing less  than  infinite  skill." 

The  entertaining  writer  of  the  quoted  paragraph  tells  us  that 
16 


242         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

every  Christian  should  entertain  "a  strong  and  consoling  belief 
of  the  doctrine  of  a  Particular  Providence,  which  cares  for  the 
welfare  of  each;  "  and  that  "in  the  divine  management  of  the 
fortuities  of  life  there  may  also  be  very  plainl}^  perceived  a  dis- 
pensation of  moral  exercise  specifically  adapted  to  the  temper 
and  powers  of  the  individual.  .  .  .  Whoever  is  quite  uncon- 
scious of  this  sort  of  overruling  of  his  affairs  by  means  of 
apparent  accidents  must  be  very  little  addicted  to  habits  of  intel- 
ligent reflection.  ...  By  such  strong  and  nicely  fitted  move- 
ments of  the  machine  of  Providence  is  it  that  the  tasks  of  life 
are  distributed  where  best  they  may  be  performed,  and  its  bur- 
dens apportioned  where  best  they  may  be  sustained." 

Even  Taylor's  clear  and  beautiful  presentation  of  this  theory 
which  identifies  God's  providence  and  the  course  of  events  pro- 
duced solely  by  natural  agencies  working  always  and  every- 
where invariably  in  the  same  order — and  no  one  could  present  it 
in  a  clearer  or  more  interesting  light  than  did  Isaac  Taylor — is 
far  from  satisfying  the  demands  of  reason  and  Christian  faith. 
True,  it  links  this  chain  of  necessarily  related  causes  and  effects 
evolved  by  the  operation  of  unconscious  forces,  somewhere  in 
the  infinite  past,  to  a  creative  decree  of  Infinite  Wisdom,  thus 
marrying  naturalism  and  theism.  As  every  thing  comes  about 
in  "the  settled  order  of  causes  and  effects,"  why  should  those 
events  which  come  about  by  the  concurrence  and  interaction  of 
forces  so  numerous  and  remote  as  utterly  to  bafiie  human  fore- 
sight, and  to  be  rightly  considered  a  "vast  chaos  of  contingen- 
cies," be  yet,  for  the  purposes  of  well-being  and  moral  disci- 
pline, and  "with  unerring  precision,"  a  "  special  order  of  events 
adapted  to  the  character  of  every  individual  of  the  hianan  fam- 
ily ?  "  The  difficulty  is  greatly  increased  if  we  allow  the  play 
of  that  freedom  of  the  human  will  which  is  the  sole  basis  of 
any  rational  theory  of  a  moral  government  of  mankind;  for 
many  men  are  not  what  they  should  be,  not  doing  what  they 
should  be  doing,  and  are  where  and  what  they  should  not  be. 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  243 

How,  then,  can  an  invariable  order  of  natural  sequence  bring  at 
every  moment  to  ever.y  man,  "with  unerring  precision,"  that 
particular  combination  of  events  exactly  suited  to  his  moral 
need  ?  Moreover,  it  is  a  matter  of  fact  that  men  of  widely  dif- 
fering moral  needs  are  subject  to  the  same  or  like  combinations 
of  events,  and  that  men  of  apparently  like  moral  needs  are 
environed  by  widely  diflfering  combinations  of  events.  So  this 
naturalistic  theory  of  a  divine  providence  seems  untenable,  as 
being  utterly  inconsistent  with  all  conceivable  theories  of  free 
agency,  and  not  harmonizing  v^ell  even  with  the  doctrine  of 
necessity,  unless,  indeed,  we  affirm  that  a  combination  of  events 
adapted  to  cultivate  the  spiritual  in  one  man  is  in  another 
adapted  to  develop  the  carnal,  and  that  God  decreed  it  thus.  It 
teaches  that  every  man's  character,  occupation,  and  environment 
are  what  Providence  appointed,  since,  as  Mr.  Taylor  puts  it,  an 
"  exact  contrivance"  of  Providence  "  so  arranges  the  vast  chaos 
of  contingencies  as  to  produce,  with  unerring  precision,  a 
special  order  of  events  adapted  to  every  individual  of  the 
human  family."  As  an  explanation  of  the  moral  condition  of 
society,  upon  any  principles  compatible  with  the  idea  of  merit 
and  demerit,  it  is  a  bald  and  hopeless  failure,  for  it  makes  Provi- 
dence stand  in  the  same  relation  to  the  minister  proclaiming  to 
men  free  salvation  for  all  who  will  receive  it  and  to  the  wretch 
dealing  out  damning  drink,  as  the  "machine  of  Providence,"  by 
its  "  strong  and  nicely  fitting  movements,"  brings  to  every  man 
the  divinely  allotted  work  he  was  divinely  fitted  to  perform. 

In  his  ''Nature  and  the  Supernatural,  as  Together  Constituting 
the  One  System  of  God,''  Horace  Bushnell  thus  enters  his  pro- 
test to  the  naturalistic  theory  of  the  method  of  Providence: 
"  God  is  (according  to  this  theory)  only  a  great  mechanic,  who 
has  made  a  great  machine  for  the  sake  of  the  machine,  having 
his  work  all  done  long  ages  ago.  Moral  government  is  out  of 
the  question — there  is  no  government  but  the  predestined  roll- 
ing cf  the  machine.     If  a  man  sins,  the  sin  is  only  the  play  of 


244         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

cause  and  effect — that  is,  of  the  machine.  If  he  repents,  the 
same  is  true — sin,  repentance,  hope,  love,  joy  are  all  develop- 
ments of  cause  and  effect — that  is,  of  the  machine.  If  a  soul 
gives  itself  to  God,  in  love,  the  love  is  but  a  grind-out  of  some 
wheel  he  has  set  turning,  or  it  may  be  turns,  in  the  scheme  of 
nature.  If  I  look  up  to  him,  and  call  him  Father,  he  can  only 
pity  the  conceit  of  my  filial  feeling,  knowing  that  it  is  attributa- 
ble to  nothing  but  the  run  of  mere  necessary  cause  and  effect. 
If  I  look  up  to  him  for  help,  he  can  only  hand  me  over  to 
cause  and  effect,  of  which  I  am  a  link  m3"self,  and  bid  me  stay  in 
my  place  to  be  what  I  am  made  to  be.  ...  If  there  is  nothing 
but  God  and  nature,  and  God  himself  has  no  relations  to  nature, 
save  just  to  fill  it  and  keep  it  on  its  way,  then,  being  ourselves  a 
part  of  nature,  we  are  only  a  link,  each  one,  in  a  chain  let  down 
into  a  well,  where  nothing  else  can  ever  touch  us  but  the  link 
next  above  !  O  it  is  horrible.  Our  soul  freezes  at  the  thought. 
We  want,  we  must  have  something  better." 

To  satisfy  the  demands  of  reason  and  our  moral  and  spiritual 
cravings,  a  theory  of  the  providence  of  God  must  harmonize 
with — 

1.  The  sovereignty,  holiness,  and  goodness  of  God. 

2.  The  freedom  of  man's  will  as  freedom  is  asserted  in  his 
consciousness,  and  demanded  by  reason  as  the  condition  of 
moral  government. 

3.  The  observed  facts  in  man's  life  and  in  the  world  about 

him. 

Turning  now  to  the  doctrinal  standard  of  our  Church,  we  find 

that  it  declares : 

1.  That  God,  in  his  providence,  ordinarily  works  through  the 
instrumentality  of  laws  or  means ;  yet  is  free  to  work  with  and 
above  them. 

2.  God's  providence  over  the  wicked  is  not  designed  to  lead 
them  to  destruction,  but  to  a  knowledge  of  his  goodness,  and 
his  sovereign  power  over  them,  and  thus  to  become  a  7neans  of 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  245 

their  repentance  and  reformation,  or  to  be  a  warning  to  others; 
and  if  the  wicked  make  it  an  occasion  of  hardening  their 
hearts,  it  is  because  of  their  perversity,  and  not  from  necessity. 

3.  God's  providence,  though  embracing  all  creatures  in  a  gen- 
eral way,  extends  in  a  special  manner  to  his  Church. 

On  the  important  doctrine  of  the  providence  of  God,  there- 
fore, as  in  relation  to  other  fundamental  doctrines  of  Christian- 
ity, Cumberland  Presbj'terian  theology  is  a  protest  against  the 
Calvinistic  idea  of  necessity  which  attributes  every  event  to  the 
decree  and  the  eflScient  agency  of  God.  While  our  early  theo- 
logical writers  have  left  us  but  little  upon  this  subject,  the  Lect- 
ures of  Rev.  Reuben  Burrow,  D.D.,  who  was  for  some  time  a 
professor  of  theology  in  a  college  of  the  denomination,  contains 
a  lecture  that  is  clear  and  vigorous  in  thought,  and  valuable  as 
an  exposition  of  our  view  of  "Divine  Providence,"  from  which 
we  extract  the  following  characteristic  passages: 

"  It  ma}^  be  assumed  and  fairly  maintained  that,  as  there  is  no 
eternal  evil  in  the  universe,  and  Providence  could  not  produce 
it  in  harmon}'  with  his  will  and  attributes,  it  could  only  come 
into  existence  by  disobedience  and  a  violation  of  the  supreme 
will  and  law  by  creatures.  Moral  evil  is  a  transgression  of 
the  moral  law ;  it  is  an  act  against  the-  whole  Godhead — decrees, 
laws,  will,  and  nature,  all.  Such  a  thing  as  moral  evil  can  not 
possibly  be  willed  hy  the  Holy  One." 

"Was  it  possible  for  any  that  were  doomed  to  sin  and  death  to 
escape,  or  for  such  as  were  ordained  to  life  to  be  lost  ?  There 
can  be  no  change.  But  who  did  all  this  ?  We  are  told  that  the 
most  wise  and  holy  Providence  did  it  all.  He  ordered  and  gov- 
erned all  the  sins  of  all  men  and  angels,  and  then  punished 
some  of  them  in  hell  for  their  sins.  Then  we  are  told  that  he 
who  did  all  this  is  neither  the  author  or  approver  of  at  least  a 
part  of  his  providential  doings.  As  to  the  authorship,  there 
need  be  no  dispute  when  we  are  told  that  Providence  did  it  all. 
This  is  the  point,  an}^  way,  against  which  I  enter  my  protest." 


246         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

"There  is  no  necessity  for  running  into  such  extremes  by 
ascribing  every  thing  which  transpires  in  the  universe  to  Provi- 
dence. The  position  is  wrong  and  contradicts  itself,  and  never 
can  result  in  any  good  whatever.  .  .  .  Permissive  decrees  and 
permissive  providences  must  be  associated  together,  and,  if 
they  mean  any  thing  different  from  what  is  meant  by  absolute 
decrees  and  providences,  must  signify  free  agency  and  accounta- 
bility, and,  as  a  matter  of  course,  freedom  from  the  reign  and 
rule  of  absolute  decrees  and  providences,  .  .  .  that  freedom  of 
volition  which  the  Creator  granted  to  his  accountable  creat- 
ures." 

"  But  it  is  said  that  Providence  has  not  bestowed  his  gifts 
alike  upon  all  this  world;  that  he  has  bestowed  more  of  his 
munificence  upon  some  than  upon  others,  and  cast  their  lots  in 
this  world  under  circumstances  widely  different.  .  .  .  Much  of 
the  difference,  however,  which  our  eyes  behold  in  earthly  things 
is  owing  to  the  providence  or  improvidence  of  earth's  children, 
and  not  attributable  to  our  heavenly  Father.  We  do  much  our- 
selves to  make  our  lots  easy  or  hard  in  life,  by  our  iniproveinent  or 
misimprovement  of  the  gifts  of  Providence ^ 

The  late  Rev.  Richard  Beard,  D.D.,  eminent  as  a  scholar,  as  an 
instructor  in  theology,  and  as  endowed  with  all  the  loveliness  of 
eminent  piety,  in  his  First  Series  of  Lectures  on  Theology,  dis- 
cusses Divine  Providence,  in  a  clear  and  forcible  exposition,  a 
few  extracts  from  which  will  sufficiently  indicate  his  views : 

"The  subject  is  vaguely  understood.  We  associate  in  our 
minds  the  idea  of  a  particular  providence  with  the  idea  of 
necessity,  and  become  confused.  We  can  not  distinguish  God's 
overruling  whatever  is  done,  and  his  doing,  or  causing  to  be 
done,  whatever  is  done.  Yet  the  two  are  as  different  as  any  two 
facts  can  be." 

Again:  "  God  foresees,  overrules,  and  controls  all  events.  He 
is  not,  however,  the  intentional  author  of  all  events.  ...  If 
God  were  the  only  mind  in  the  universe,  it  would  be  true  that 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  247 

every  action  and  every  event  must  proceed  from  him,  since  mind 
is  necessary  to  action.  But  there  are  subordinate  minds 
endowed  with  the  power  of  action.  These  minds  become 
sources  of  action." 

The  inquiry,  In  what  way  does  God  exercise  his  providence? 
Dr.  Beard  thus  answers : 

"  I.  In  providing  for  the  wants  of  men,  especially  of  good 
men."     Matt.  v.  45. 

"  2.  In  leaving  sometimes  his  own  children  in  darkness  and 
doubt  for  purposes  of  discipline."     Job  is  an  example. 

"  3.  In  afflicting  good  men  for  the  purpose  of  promoting  their 
sanctification.  I  allude  more  particularly  to  bodily  afflictions, 
and  to  trouble  in  our  circumstances."     Ps.  cxix.  67,  71,  75. 

"4.  In  afflicting  good  men,  that  they  may  serve  as  examples 
of  faith  and  patience  to  others."     Job  is  instanced. 

"5.  In  afflicting  wicked  men  for  the  purpose  of  bringing 
them  to  repentance."     Manasseh,  king  of  Judah,  an  instance. 

"  6.  God  exercises  his  providences  in  overruling  the  outbreaks 
of  the  selfish  and  lawless  passions  of  men  for  the  promotion  of 
his  own  glory."     Pharaoh  and  the  king  of  Assyria. 

"  7.  In  withholding  his  Spirit  and  grace  from  some  wicked 
men,  whereby  they  are  judicially  given  over  to  hardness  of 
heart  and  blindess  of  mind,  in  consequence  of  their  former 
wickedness  and  rebellion."     2  Thess.  ii.  11,  12. 

The  extracts  here  given  from  two  authors  who  were  leading 
theological  teachers  of  the  body  may  be  regarded  as  a  correct 
expression  of  the  current  views  of  Cumberland  Presbyterians 
touching  the  doctrine  of  God's  providence,  and  as  substantially 
interpreting  the  doctrinal  symbol  of  the  Church.  It  is  to  be 
noted  that,  in  addition  to  the  points  previously  specified,  this 
-scheme  of  God's  providence  over  mankind  fully  recognizes  and 
emphasizes  that  rational  freedom  which  is  a  part  of  man's  origi- 
nal endowment,  and  indispensable  to  the  idea  of  his  moral  respon- 
sibility.    Thus  our  medium  and  safe  theology  conserves,  in  the 


248  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

doctrine  of  providence,  as  in  the  other  great  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  Christianity,  such  consistency  of  parts  as  clearly  har- 
monizes the  moral  government  of  the  world  and  the  moral 
endowments  of  the  subjects  of  that  government,  and  thereby 
justifies  the  ways  of  the  moral  Governor  in  his  dealings  with 
the  children  of  men. 

"  Religious  sentiment  has  always  insisted,"  says  Lotze,  "  at  the 
outset  very  obscurely,  though  vigorously,  that  something  new 
must  happen  in  the  world — something  that  is  not  a  mere  conse- 
quence of  what  has  gone  before — and  there  must  exist  in  indi- 
vidual spirits  just  this  capacit}^  to  initiate  a  new  series  of 
events ;  and  therefore,  in  brief,  a  freedom  of  acting  or  primarily 
of  willing ;  "  .  .  .  and  that  "  in  this  way  has  the  problem  origi- 
nated which  leads  to  the  conception  of  a  government."  .  .  . 
Moreover,  this  freedom  of  action — this  wonderful  power  in  man 
to  be  himself  a  cause,  the  author  of  moral  sequences  which  else 
would  not  have  been,  is  demanded  "  because  we  regard  it,"  says 
L,otze,  "  as  the  conditio  sine  qua  iion  of  the  fulfillment  of  ethical 
commands." 

"It  seems  therefore,"  says  Lotze  in  concluding  his  attempt  at 
2i philosophy  of  the  Divine  Government  of  the  world,  "that  it  is 
not  at  all  nature  directly,  but  primarily  the  inner  life  of  the 
world  of  spirits  only,  that  forms  the  object  to  which  immediate 
interventions  in  the  government  of  the  world  could  have  rela- 
tion ;  and  this  in  such  manner  that  the  interventions  would  not 
make  use  of  the  individual  spirits  merely  as  passive  points  of 
transition,  but  would  supply  their  own  activity  with  induce- 
ments and  incentives,  which  the  external  course  of  nature  can 
not  offer  them."  By  this  means  there  would  be  introduced 
"  into  the  world  new  beginnings  of  spiritual  movements  that  are 
in  conformity  with  the  plan  of  the  world ;  "  and  the  new  events 
we  are  to  regard,  according  to  Lotze,  "  as  products  of  the  recip- 
rocal action  of  God  with  individual  spirits,  by  means  of  which 
there  is  brought  to  pass  in  them  an  ideal  appearance,  of  a  truly 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  249 

valid  content."  As  a  final  summary  of  the  results  of  his  effort 
at  a  philosophical  view  of  the  world,  Lotze  formulates  in  three 
propositions  what  he  regards  as  "  the  characteristic  convictions 
of  every  religious  apprehension,  in  contradistinction  to  a  merely 
intellectual  view  of  the  world :  " 

"  (i)  Ethical  laws  we  designate  as  the  will  of  God, 

"  (2)  Individual  finite  spirits  we  designate,  not  as  products  of 
nature,  but  as  children  of  God. 

"  (3)  Actuality  we  designate,  not  as  a  mere  course  of  the 
world,  but  as  a  kingdom  of  God." 

L,otze's  scheme  of  the  world  as  a  totality  makes  all  other 
parts  subordinate  to  man's  well-being,  and  man's  glory  and  high- 
est bliss  to  consist  in  those  ethical  and  religious  relations  which 
bring  him  into  favor  and  fellowship  with  God.  The  §upreme 
end  of  the  creation  and  of  the  government  of  the  world  is  the 
kingdom  of  God,  for  the  establishment,  progress,  and  final  tri- 
umph of  which  kingdom  God's  providence,  by  the  direct  action 
of  his  supreme  will  on  finite  minds,  is  so  shaping  the  issues  of 
time  as  to  culminate  in  the  fulfillment  of  his  purpose  and 
prophecy  concerning  the  incoming  glorious  dispensation  which 
is  to  be  everlasting. 


250         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE    FALL    OP    MAN — EFFECTS    ON   THE    ORIGINAL    TRANS- 
GRESSORS— EFFECTS  ON  THE  RACE — THE    COVE- 
NANT OF   GRACE,   ETC. 

FALL   OF   MAN. 

"  17.  Our  first  parents,  being  seduced  by  the  subtlety  and  temptation  of 
Satan,  sinned  in  eating  the  forbidden  fruit ;  whereupon  God  was  pleased, 
for  his  own  glory  and  the  good  of  mankind,  to  reveal  the  Covenant  of 
Grace  in  Christ,  by  which  a  gracious  probation  was  established  for  all  men. 

"  18.  By  this  sin  they  fell  from  their  original  uprightness,  lost  their  com- 
miunion  with  God,  and  so  became  dead  in  sin,  and  defiled  in  all  the  faculties 
of  their  moral  being.  They  being  the  root  of  all  mankind,  sin  entered 
into  the  world  through  their  act,  and  death  by  sin,  and  so  death  passed 
upon  all  men. 

"  19.  From  this  original  corruption  also  proceeds  actual  transgression. 

"  20,  The  remains  of  this  corrupt  nature  are  felt  by  those  who  are 
regenerated,  nor  will  ^hey  altogether  cease  to  operate  and  disturb  during 
the  present  life. 

"  21.  Sin,  being  a  transgression  of  the  law  of  God,  brings  guilt  upon  the 
transgressor,  and  subjects  him  to  the  wrath  of  God  and  to  endless  tor 
ment,  unless  pardoned  through  the  mediation  of  Christ." 
god's  covenant  with  man. 

"22.  The  first  covenant  made  with  man  was  a  Covenant  of  Works^ 
wherein  life  was  promised  to  Adam  upon  condition  of  perfect  and  per- 
sonal obedience. 

"  23.  Man  by  his  fall  having  made  himself  incapable  of  life  by  that 
covenant,  the  Lord  was  pleased  to  make  the  second,  commonly  called  the 
Covenant  of  Grace,  wherein  he  freely  offers  unto  sinners  life  and  salvation 
by  Jesus  Christ,  requiring  of  them  faith  in  him,  that  they  may  be  saved. 
This  covenant  is  frequently  set  forth  in  the  Scriptures  by  the  name  of  a 
testament,  in  reference  to  the  death  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  testator,  and  to 
the  everlasting  inheritance,  with  all  things  belonging  to  it,  therein 
bequeathed. 

"  24.  Under  the  Old  Testament  dispensation  the  Covenant  of  Grace  was 
administered  by  promises,  prophecies,  sacrifices,  circumcision,  the  paschal 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  25  I 

lamb,  and  other  types  and  ordinances  delivered  to  the  Jews — all  foresigni- 
fying  Christ  to  come — which  were  sufficient,  through  the  operation  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  to  instruct  them  savingly  in  the  knowledge  of  God,  and  build 
them  up  in  the  faith  of  the  Messiah. 

"  25.  Under  the  New  Testament  dispensation,  wherein  Christ,  the  sub- 
stance, is  set  forth,  the  ordinances  in  which  the  Covenant  of  Grace  is  dis- 
pensed are  the  preaching  of  the  word  and  the  administration  of  the  sac- 
raments of  Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper,  which  are  administered  with 
more  simplicity,  yet  in  them  it  is  held  forth  in  more  fullness  and  spiritual 
efficacy  to  all  nations,  Jews  and  Gentiles. 

"  26.  As  children  were  included  with  their  parents  in  the  Covenant  of 
Grace  under  the  Old  Testament  dispensation,  so  are  they  included  in  it 
under  the  new,  and  should,  as  under  the  old,  receive  the  appropriate  sign 
and  seal  thereof." 

TN  these  sections  of  the  Confession,  and  in  the  few  that  imme- 
diately  follow  them,  are  contained  doctrines  of  transcendent 
importance  on  account  of  their  practical  relation  to  man's  duty 
and  accountability,  his  moral  career  upon  the  earth,  and  his  ever- 
lasting destiny :  man  as  endowed  with  the  intelligence  and  free- 
dom which  make  him  a  subject  of  moral  law;  man  as  involved 
in  sin  and  condemnation  because  of  the  violation  of  that  law ; 
man  as  the  subject  of  a  merciful  scheme  of  redemption  through 
divine  mediation  and  expiation ;  man  as  the  author  of  his  own 
destiny  by  his  power  to  accept  or  to  reject  the  offered  salvation 
— these  and  allied  subjects  are  as  important  and  interesting  as 
any  that  can  challenge  attention  or  absorb  reason's  profoundest 
meditation.  On  these  great  and  cardinal  themes  is  Cumberland 
Presbyterian  theology  in  harmony  with  the  facts  of  man's  nat- 
ure and  condition,  the  dictates  of  enlightened  judgment,  and  the 
plain  teaching  of  the  word  of  God  ?  If  discordant  to  any  of 
these  tests,  so  far  must  that  system  be  rejected ;  if  accordant 
with  all,  then  must  it  stand  approved  by  the  highest  tribunals 
by  which  moral  and  religious  systems  can  be  judged. 

Next  to  the  Bible  itself  a  plain,  logical  doctrinal  formula 
which  embodies  substantially  the  teachings  of  the  Bible  on  these 
great  themes  must  be  esteemed  of  inestimable  value.  When  we 
consider  how  numerous,  varied,  and  even  antagonistic  have  been 


2r2  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

the  interpretations  given  to  the  Bible  in  some  of  its  most  impor- 
tant parts,  and  how  absurd,  hurtful,  and  demoralizing  have  been 
many  practices  growing  out  of  these  false  interpretations,  we 
should  be  ready  to  see  in  this  brief,  rational  statement  of  beUef 
touching  the  great  facts  of  man's  moral  freedom,  sin,  and 
supernatural  grace  and  redemption,  a  "  confession  "  for  which 
Cumberland  Presbyterians  may  with  justice  earnestly  contend 
as  embodying  "  the  faith  (concerning  the  common  salvation)  for- 
merly delivered  to  the  saints." 

Departing  from  the  order  of  the  topics  in  the  sections  of  the 
Confession,  as  far  as  seems  necessary  in  order  to  a  logical 
arrangement  of  the  doctrinal  points,  we  notice : 

I.  Man  zvas  created  in  a  state  of  holiness. 

As  it  is  expressed  in  the  section  (ii)  on  "creation:"  "God 
created  man  in  his  own  image.  .  .  .  they  having  the  law  of  God 
written  in  their  hearts,  and  power  to  fulfill  it.  being  upright  and 
free  from  all  bias  to  evil."  In  section  i8  it  is  declared  that  the 
foreparents  fell  from  "  their  original  uprightness,"  and  so  "  lost 
their  communion  with  God."  The  passage  cited  in  section  ii, 
to  prove  that  man's  original  state  was  one  of  uprightness,  is 
Eccl.  vii.  29,  "  Lo,  this  only  have  I  found,  that  God  hath  made 
man  upright;  but  they  have  sought  out  many  inventions."  The 
same  passage  is  cited  under  section  18,  to  prove  man's  fall  from 
the  original  uprightness.  It  is  doubtful,  however,  whether  this 
passage,  so  often  quoted  in  the  connections  named,  has  primary 
reference  to  either  an  original  state  of  holiness  or  a  lapse  from, 
such  a  state. 

The  declaration  that  man  was  made  "  in  the  image  of  God" 
seems  to  furnish  unquestionable  ground  for  the  belief  that 
uprightness,  or  holiness,  is  the  moral  condition  in  which  the  first 
parents  of  the  race  came  from  the  Creator's  hand,  to  begin  their 
moral  career  upon  the  earth.  In  what  does  that  "  image  o£ 
God  "  consist?  "  So  God  created  man  in  his  own  image ;  in  the 
image  of  God  created  he  him."      Certainly  this  image   would 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  253 

embrace  the  communicable  moral  attributes  of  God,  a  distinc- 
tion which  would  separate  man  from  the  brute  creatures  by 
what  a  philosopher  calls  "  the  greatest  difference  in  the  uni- 
verse." There  is  great  value  in  the  suggestion  of  Dr.  Joseph 
Parker,  who  exhorts  us  "  not  to  mock  one  another,  and  taunt- 
ingly ask  if  we  are  made  in  the  image  and  likeness  of  God,  but 
to  steadfastly  gaze  on  Christ,  marking  the  perfectness  of  his 
lineaments,  the  harmony  of  his  attributes,  the  sublimity  of  his 
purpose,  and  then,  pointing  to  him  in  his  solitude  of  beauty  and 
holiness,  we  may  exclaim,  '  Behold  the  image  of  God.' " 

As  to  the  metaphysical  distinction  that  holiness  is  not  an 
endowment,  and  that,  therefore,  before  Adam  had  put  forth 
moral  action  he  was  destitute  of  moral  character,  it  is  enough  to 
answer,  with  Dr.  Richard  Beard,  that  before  man  acted,  after  God 
had  breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life,  man  was  "so 
endowed  that  all  the  tendencies  of  his  nature  were  then  toward 
knowledge,  righteousness,  and  holiness." 

Rev.  Joseph  Miller,  B.D.,  in  his  admirable  treatise  on  Hamar- 
tiology,  puts  all  the  features  into  "  one  picture  "  as  follows  :  "  (i) 
Intimate  and  unbroken  communion  of  the  created  spirit  with 
God ;  (2)  love  to  him  with  the  faith  and  obedience  which  spring 
from  love ;  (3)  holy  conformity  with  the  divine  will,  which  raises 
man  above  the  world  and  confers  supremacy  above  all  other 
creatures ;  (4)  the  '  real  '  freedom,  distinguished  from  '  formal,' 
though  growing  from  it,  which  comes  from  divine  sonship  and 
lioly  love;  (5)  a  clear  and  salutary  knowledge  of  God  himself; 
(6)  a  goodness,  purity,  and  truth,  as  yet  unmixed  with  evil." 

Lordship  over  all  creatures,  righteousness,  and  true  holiness, 
with  immortality,  constitute,  according  to  another  symbol,  the 
elements  of  that  "divine  image"  expressive  of  man's  original 
state.  Had  man  continued  in  this  state  of  original  uprightness, 
freely  and  constantly  choosing  the  will  of  God  as  the  rule  of  his 
behavior,  he  would  have  been  completely  happy,  and,  by  some 
provision  of  divine  Wisdom,  would  have  become  heir  of  immor- 


254  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

tality  without  the  pain  and  humiliation  of  death  and  corruption, 
but 

2.  Man  fell  from  original  uprightness. 

Satan's  subtlety  tempted  to  disobedience  of  God's  command, 
and  our  first  parents,  freely  choosing  evil,  sinned  ;  sinning,  they 
fell.  Such  is  the  brief  account  of  that  moral  lapse  which,  occur- 
ring at  the  fountain  head  of  humanity,  subjected  the  race  to 
death  and  all  the  moral  woes  attendant  on  sin. 

Why  did  not  God,  some  one  will  ask,  seeing  that  he  is  infi- 
nitely wise  to  foresee  what  would  come  to  pass,  and  infinitely 
good  to  choose  the  happiness  of  his  creatures,  make  man  incapa- 
ble of  sinning?  It  was  morally  impossible  for  God  to  make  man 
a  subject  of  moral  law,  and  j-et  not  a  subject  of  moral  law. 
Without  power  to  disobey,  there  could  not  be  freedom  ;  without 
freedom,  there  could  not  be  virtue ;  without  virtue,  there  could 
not  be  the  happiness  which  the  infinite  Benevolence  chooses  as 
the  end  of  his  vast  moral  empire. 

"  There  is,  doubtless,  a  higher  necessity,"  says  the  Rev.  Joseph 
Miller,  "  to  love  God  and  conform  in  all  things  to  his  holy  will, 
wherein  consists  the  real  liberty  of  humanity,  but  such  love  and 
conformity  is  really  valueless  if  it  be  not  the  voluntary  and 
deliberate  outcome  of  the  will,  or  if  it  be  impossible  for  the 
creature  to  do  otherwise.  But  sin,  though  possible  in  the  very 
conception  of  created  personality,  is  not  necessary,  since  it  was 
in  the  power  of  the  first  man  to  resist  and  overcome  all  seduc- 
tions to  evil,  just  as  Christ  did,  just  as  the  regenerate  are 
expected  to  do  increasingly  as  the  principle  of  grace  and  spirit- 
ual life  grows  stronger  in  them." 

"  Our  first  parents,  being  left  to  the  freedom  of  their  own  will, 
fell  from  the  estate  wherein  they  were  created  by  sinning  against 
God,"  says  our  Catechism;  and  it  adds  that  the  specific  "sin 
whereby  our  first  parents  fell  from  the  estate  wherein  they  were 
created  was  their  disobeying  God's  command  in  eating  the  for- 
bidden fruit." 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  255 

in  their  view  of  the  nature  of  man  and  the  introduction  of  sin 
into  the  world,  Cumberland  Presbyterians  emphasize  the  doc- 
trine of  man's  freedom,  which  freedom  they  hold  to  be  insepara- 
ble from  the  idea  of  sin,  and  the  ground  of  the  just  vindication 
of  the  providence  of  God  respecting  the  fall.  Without  freedom 
virtue  is  an  illusion,  and  what  we  have  been  accustomed  to  think 
of  as  God's  vast  empire  of  rational  and  virtuous  creatures,  the 
crowning  glory  of  his  creation,  is  but  a  dream  of  the  imagina- 
tion. Any  scheme  of  necessity  as  an  interpretation  of  the  fall 
must  dishonor  both  man  and  God,  making  man  incapable  of 
virtue,  making  God  to  choose  evil  for  its  own  sake.  Nor  was 
Adam  free  to  disobej^  the  divine  command,  with  power  of  con- 
trary choice,  in  anj^  other  sense  than  that  in  which  the  man  who 
now  lies  or  steals  knows  himself  to  be  free  in  putting  forth  the 
volition  so  to  do,  and  as  having  power  to  abstain  from  so  willing 
and  doing.  Not  in  mockery,  but  in  sincerity  and  with  deepest 
solicitude  for  human  weal,  God  said  to  the  first  parents,  and 
evermore  is  saying  to  humanity,  "  Behold,  I  set  before  you  good 
and  evil,  blessing  and  cursing,  life  and  death ;  now,  therefore, 
choose  life,  that  ye  may  live." 

3.    The  state  into  which  their  si?i  broiight  the  first  par e7its. 

The  Confession  says  (section  18)  "they  fell  from  their  original 
uprightness,  lost  their  communion  with  God,  and  so  became 
dead  in  sin  and  defiled  in  all  the  faculties  of  their  moral  being;  " 
and  the  Catechism  says  that  "Adam's  sin  corrupted  his  moral 
nature  and  alienated  him  from  God."  Now,  it  may  be  noted  in 
passing  that  all  the  things  here  affirmed  to  be  effects  coming 
directly  upon  the  transgressors  themselves  are  not  only  effects 
that  could  come,  but  results  that  must  come  under  the  conditions 
supposed.  The  Bible  account  and  the  Confession  accord  with 
the  facts  of  human  nature  and  the  requirements  of  enlightened 
reason. 

The  Council  of  Trent  declared :  "  If  any  one  shall  not  confess 
that  the  first  man,  Adam,  when  the  command  of  God  had  been 


256         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

transgressed  in  paradise,  lost  holiness  and  justice,  and  by  that 
offense  incurred  the  wrath  of  God,  and  that  the  whole  man  in 
soul  and  body  had  been  thereby  thoroughly  deteriorated,  let 
him  be  accursed." 

"  Sin,  being  a  transgression  of  the  law  of  God,  brings  guilt 
upon  the  transgressor,  and  subjects  him  to  the  wrath  of  God  and 
to  endless  torment,  unless  pardoned  through  the  mediation  of 
Christ." — Coyifession^  section  21. 

The  change  which  came  to  Adam  as  a  subject  of  moral  law,  in 
consequence  of  his  fall,  embraces  these  points  : 

1.  The  loss  of  the  original  uprightness,  or  righteousness,  of 
character.  Righteousness  is  the  state  of  a  free  moral  agent  so 
long  as  he  chooses  in  accordance  with  the  will  of  God,  or  in 
accordance  with  what  is  essentially  right. 

2.  He  incurred  guilt,  falling  under  the  condemnation  of  the 
holy  law  ordained  for  his  government,  in  consequence  of  choos- 
ing to  disobey  a  positive  and  clearly  revealed  divine  command. 

3.  He  became  obnoxious  to  the  penalty  of  the  violated  law. 
Before  the  transgression  obedience  entitled  him  to  the  rewards 
stipulated  in  the  covenant  of  works;  after  the  transgression  he 
was  justly  liable  to  all  the  penalties  set  over  against  disobedi- 
ence. 

4.  Corruption  of  his  moral  faculties.  Retaining  all  his  facul- 
ties, the  transgressor  experiences  a  depraved  operation  of  these. 
Intelligence  is  blinded,  sensibility  blunted,  will  perverted.  In 
the  language  of  the  Confession,  man  became  "dead  in  sin." 

5.  Loss  of  communion  with  God.  "  His  thoughts  no  longer 
revolved  around  God  as  their  common  center.  His  thoughts  no 
longer  entwined  around  Jehovah,  as  the  vine  twines  around  the 
oak.  He  began  to  cherish  enmity  against  him  whom  formerly 
he  supremely  loved.  He  became  terrified  for  that  God  whom 
formerly  he  delighted  to  meet.  He  sought  his  happiness  no 
more  in  communing  with,  but  in  fleeing  from,  God."  (Frame, 
on  Original  Sin.) 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  257 

6.  Internally  lie  experienced  consciousness  of  unworthiness, 
depravity,  guilt,  remorse,  and  the  pangs  of  mental  anguish  inci- 
dent to  the  apprehension  of  evil  in  consequence  of  sin. 

7.  The  death  of  the  body.  The  Confession  declares  (Sec.  18) 
that  sin  entered  the  world  through  the  act  of  the  first  parents, 
"  and  death  by  sin,"  which  clearly  implies  that  aside  from  man's 
fall  death  would  not  have  been  in  the  world.  If  Adam's  sin 
brought  death  into  the  world,  it  must  have  brought  death  upon 
him,  and  hence,  death  is  to  be  included  in  the  effects  of  the  fall, 
upon  the  original  transgressors.  Such  seems  to  have  been  the 
view  of  the  leading  theologians  in  the  first  Christian  centuries. 
"  Death  was  the  punishment  which  Jehovah  had  threatened  to 
inflict  on  the  transgressors  of  his  law.  Nevertheless  the  act  of 
transgression  was  not  immediately  succeeded  by  death,  but  by  a 
train  of  evils  which  came  upon  both  the  man  and  the  woman, 
introductory  to  death,  and  testifying  that  man  had  become 
mortal.  Accordingly  both  death  and  physical  evils  were  con- 
sidered the  effects  of  Adam's  sin,  as  by  Iraeneus  and  others." 
(Hagenbach's  Hist,  of  Doct.) 

When  God  laid  upon  Adam  the  prohibition — that  of  the  tree 
of  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil  he  should  not  eat — the  com- 
mand was  accompanied  (Gen.  ii.  17)  with  the  explicit  warning, 
"  For  in  the  day  thou  eatest  thereof  thou  shalt  surely  die," 
which  passage,  as  well  as  numerous  New  Testament  passages, 
seems  unmistakably  to  teach  that  our  first  parents  were  made 
liable  to  bodily  death  as  a  consequence  of  their  sin. 

Since  man's  body  was  doubtless  essentiallj^  the  same  in  the 
Edenic  state  as  it  is  now,  and  since  sin  is  a  moral  act  involving 
the  exercise  of  free  will,  and  has  no  necessary  direct  effect  upon 
the  bod}^  we  must  suppose  that  death,  as  the  penalty  of  trans- 
gression, came  about,  not  by  divine  infliction  of  mortality  upon 
an  organism  essentially  immortal,  but  by  Adam's  forfeiture  of 
the  provisions  by  which  exemption  from  death  would  have  fol- 
lowed as  the  reward  of  obedience.  As  to  his  body,  man  is 
17 


258         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

essentially  a  part  of  and  of  a  piece  with  the  animal  world  about 
him,  in  the  very  constitution  of  which  are  inseparably  involved 
the  facts  of  change,  decline,  and  death,  "  dust  thou  art,  and  unto 
dust  thou  shalt  return,"  being  as  truly  a  law  of  man's  physical 
being  as  it  is  of  the  worm  he  treads  upon. 

It  is  not  out  of  place  in  this  connection  to  call  special  atten- 
tion to  the  reasonableness  and  the  simplicity  of  Cumberland 
Presbyterian  theology  on  the  subject  of  the  introduction  of  sin 
into  the  world,  a  view  which  admits  to  the  fullest  man's  freedom 
and  responsibility,  while  it  justifies  to  the  fullest  the  goodness 
and  righteousness  of  God.     Man  is  in  fact  a  subject  of  moral 
government,  giving  account  at  the  bar  of  his  own  conscience 
and  before  the  law  of  a  God  whom  his  moral  nature  postulates. 
If  we  receive  the  biblical  account  at  all,  and  believe  man's  nat- 
ural powers  of  head  and  heart  obscured  through  sin's  blight,  we 
must  not  invest  Adam  with  the  weakness  of  a  moral  infant,  but 
with  the  endowment  of  intelligence,  sensibility,  and  will  in  such 
a  measure  as  to  render  him   a    fit  subject   for  the   probation 
through  which  he  was  called  to  pass,  and  in  which  probation, 
though   encompassed  by  transcendent  motives  to  stand,   yet, 
endowed  with  power  of  self-determination  to  either  the  right  or 
the  wrong,  he  fell  and  involved  himself  and  posterity  in  sin  and 
death. 

"  How  the  wrong  volition  originated  in  a  perfectly  holy 
mind,"  says  a  thoughtful  writer,  "  has  been  the  crux  crucis  of 
speculative  theologians  from  that  day  to  the  present,  while  it  is 
likely  to  remain  such  in  all  subsequent  periods.  With  its  origin, 
I  have  at  present,  however,  no  concern  except  to  deny  that  it 
was  kindled  by  divine  power.  To  imagine  this  were  not  merely 
to  represent  God  as  the  cause  of  sin,  but  as  being  himself  the 
sinner." 

In  like  manner  Howe  insists :  "  Man's  defection  from  his 
primitive  state  was  merely  voluntary,  and  from  the  uncon- 
strained choice  of  his  own  mutable  and  self-determining  will. 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  259 

The  pure  and  holy  nature  of  God  could  never  be  the  original  of 
man's  sin.  This  is  evident  in  itself.  God  disclaims  it ;  nor  can 
any  a£&rm  it  of  him  without  denying  his  very  being.  He  could 
not  be  the  cause  of  unholiness  but  by  ceasing  to  be  holy,  which 
would  suppose  him  mutably  holy ;  and  if  either  God  or  man 
must  be  confessed  mutable,  it  is  no  difficulty  where  to  lay  it : 
whatever  God  is,  he  is  essentially ;  and  necessity  of  existence, 
of  being  always  what  he  is,  remains  everlastingly  the  funda- 
mental attribute  of  his  being." 

The  following  excellent  note  we  transfer  from  Dr.  A.  A. 
Hodge's  Commentary  on  the  Westminster  Confession:  "God 
did  neither  cause  nor  approve  Adam's  sin.  He  forbade  it,  and 
presented  motives  which  should  have  deterred  from  it.  He  cre- 
ated Adam  holy  and  fully  capable  of  obedience,  and  with  suffi- 
cient knowledge  of  his  duty,  and  then  left  him  alone  to  his  trial. 
If  it  be  asked  why  God,  who  abhors  sin,  and  who  benevolently 
desires  the  excellence  and  happiness  of  his  creatures,  should 
sovereignly  determine  to  permit  such  a  fountain  of  pollution, 
degradation,  and  misery  to  be  opened,  we  can  only  say,  with 
profound  reverence,  '  Even  so,  Father,  for  so  it  seemed  good  in 
thy  sight.'  " 

As  Dr.  Hodge  obser\^es,  the  two  great  questions  which  have 
perplexed  men's  minds,  in  regard  to  the  fall,  are  (i)  how  sin 
could  originate  in  the  soul  of  a  being  created  holy,  and  (2)  why 
a  holy  God  should  permit  sin.  Upon  the  latter  point  it  is  in 
place  to  observe  that  God  did  not  permit  the  fall  of  man  for  its 
own  sake,  but  because  of  a  purpose  to  make  this  world  the  the- 
ater of  happiness  through  an  economy  of  free  moral  agents,  to 
which  economy  liability  to  rebellion  against  the  divine  govern- 
ment would  be  an  inseparable  attendant.  Furthermore,  as 
Hodge  observes,  "it  appears  to  be  God's  general  plan,  and  one 
eminently  wise  and  righteous,  to  introduce  all  new  created  sub- 
jects of  moral  government  into  a  state  of  probation  for  a 
time,  in  which  he  makes  their  permanent  character  and  destiny 


26o  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

depend  upon  their  own  action.  He  creates  them  holy,  yet  capa- 
ble of  falling."  The  motives  which  swayed  the  minds  of  the 
first  parents  to  evil,  despite  the  divine  prohibition  and  warning, 
Dr.  Hodge  thus  enumerates:  "  (i)  Natural  appetite  for  the 
attractive  fruit.  (2)  Natural  desire  for  knowledge.  (3)  The 
persuasive  power  of  the  superior  mind  and  will  of  Satan.  In 
this  last  fact — that  they  were  seduced  thereto  by  the  subtlety  of 
Satan — much  of  the  solution  of  this  mystery  lies." 

We  must  now  examine  the  doctrine  of  the  Confession  in  rela- 
tion to — 

4.   The  effects  Adam's  sin  brought  7ipon  the  htiman  race. 

Herein  Cumberland  Presbyterian  teaching  takes  a  wide  and 
radical  departure  from  the  Westminster  symbol,  and  from  all 
hyper-Calvinistic  standards.  While  it  is  impossible  for  us  to 
enter  upon  a  general  discussion  of  the  important  and  very  inter- 
esting subject  now  before  us,  it  is  appropriate  that  enough  be 
said  to  show  the  doctrinal  attitude  of  the  Church,  and  the  extent 
of  the  divergence  from  the  theological  system  against  which  the 
Church  was  in  its  very  organization  an  earnest  and  explicit  doc- 
trinal protest. 

In  answer  to  the  question  (16),  "What  effect  did  Adam's  sin 
have  upon  his  posterity?  "  our  Catechism  sa3^s : 

"Adam's  sin  corrupted  his  moral  nature  and  alienated  him 
from  God ;  and  all  mankind,  descending  from  him  by  ordinary 
generation,  inherit  his  corrupt  nature,  and  become  subject  to  sin 
and  death." 

And  in  reply  to  the  17th  question,  "Into  what  estate  did  the 
fall  bring  mankind?"  similarly,  and  with  seeming  repetition  of 
idea,  the  answer  is,  "  The  fall  brought  mankind  into  a  state  of 
.alienation  from  God,  which  is  spiritual  death." 

Further,  in  reply  to  question  21st,  "What  are  the  evils  of  that 
•estate  into  which  mankind  fell?  "  the  reply  is  : 

"  Mankind,  in  consequence  of  the  fall,  have  no  communion 
"with  God,  discern  not  spiritual  things,  prefer  sin  to  holiness, 


CUMBERIvAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  26 1 

suffer  from  the  fear  of  death  and  remorse  of  conscience,  and 
from  the  apprehension  of  future  punishment." 

In  harmony  with  these  answers,  the  language  of  the  Confes- 
sion is :  "  They  (the  first  parents)  being  the  root  of  all  mankind, 
sin  entered  into  the  world  through  their  act,  and  death  by  sin, 
and  so  death  passed  upon  all  men." 

A  comparison  and  analysis  of  these  statements  of  the  Cate- 
chism and  the  Confession  seem  to  justify  the  following  proposi- 
tions as  representing  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  view  of 
the  effects  which  Adam's  sin  has  entailed  upon  his  posterity : 

I.  Adam's  posterity,  because  of  his  fall,  as  the  Catechism 
affirms,  "inherit  his  corrupt  nature."  As  a  result  of  this  cor- 
ruption of  nature,  men  "  have  no  communion  with  God,"  "  dis- 
cern not  spiritual  things,"  "  prefer  sin  to  holiness,"  "  suffer  from 
fear  of  death  and  from  remorse  of  conscience,"  etc.  Thus  the 
race,  through  its  relation  to  its  first  parents,  has  "  become  sub- 
ject to  sin,"  in  the  sense  that  the  inherited  moral  corruption  is 
the  source  of  so  great  a  tendency  to  sin  as  to  make  it  certain 
that,  grace  aside,  all  the  individuals  of  the  race  will  sin  and  con- 
tinue to  sin.  It  is  because  all  mankind  "  descend  from  Adam  by 
ordinary  generation,"  that  they  "  inherit  his  corruption  of  nat- 
ure." There  is  no  intimation  in  the  Confession  or  the  Cate- 
chism that  it  is  because  of  any  positive  divine  appointment,  or 
even  that  it  is  in  accordance  with  the  divine  will  that  Adam's 
posteritj^  "inherit  his  corruption  of  nature,"  but  that  it  results 
simply  from  the  natural  relationship  of  Adam  to  his  posterity, 
which  relationship  involves  that  law  of  heredity  by  which  off- 
spring inherit  the  characteristics  of  the  parents. 

Our  standards  are  silent  as  to  the  decree  of  this  corruption  of 
man's  nature,  unless  the  expressions  "  dead  in  sin  "  and  "  defiled 
in  all  the  faculties  of  their  moral  being,"  are  to  be  interpreted  to 
mean  that  the  depravity  not  only  extends  to  all  the  functions  of 
man's  moral  nature,  but  also  that  it  is  complete.  "  This  innate 
hereditary  depravity,"  says  Dr.  Hodge,  "  is  total,  for  by  it  we  are 


262  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

utterly  indisposed,  disabled,  and  made  opposite  to  all  good,  and 
wholly  inclined  to  evil;"  and  this  "moral  corruption  which 
results  from  the  penal  withdrawing  of  God's  Holy  Spirit  in  the 
case  of  our  first  parents,"  he  further  asserts,  "  is  necessarily  con- 
veyed to  all  those  of  their  descendants  who  are  produced  by 
ordinary  generation."  It  is  not  improbable — it  is  quite  certain, 
indeed — that  among  Cumberland  Presbyterian  divines  will  be 
found  quite  numerous  shades  of  opinion  upon  this  point.  If,  as 
Dr.  Hodge  asserts,  man  is  so  depraved  in  his  moral  faculties  as 
to  be  "  disabled  and  opposite  to  all  good,  and  wholly  inclined  to 
evil,"  we  must  expect  to  find  among  men,  aside  from  the  renew- 
ing grace  of  God,  not  a  single  virtuous  act.  Bad  as  the  world  is, 
and  it  is  certainly  very  bad,  it  does  not  seem  so  bad  as  that 
theory  makes  it.  Even  where  gospel  light  has  never  shone, 
there  have  been  beautiful  illustrations  of  the  domestic  and  phil- 
anthropic virtues  and  of  even  piety  itself.  We  may,  indeed, 
with  Augustine,  call  the  "virtues"  of  the  pagans  only  "splen- 
did vices,"  but  that  is  an  extremely  pessimistic  view,  and 
opposed  by  numberless  facts  that  seem  to  show  unregenerate 
and  even  heathen  sinners  capable  of  benevolent  affections,  voli- 
tions, and  actions. 

Touching  the  extent  of  man's  inherited  depravity,  the  follow- 
ing paragraph  from  Dr.  Blake's  valuable  little  compend  of  the- 
ology is  cited,  not  with  approval  only,  but  as  believed  to  be  in 
harmony  with  the  views  of  the  majority  of  the  best  thinkers  in 
our  body : 

"  Before  answering  the  question  (whether  the  soul  is  totally 
depraved)  we  should  know  just  what  is  meant  by  the  term  total 
depravity.  If  it  means  that  the  soul  is  just  as  corrupt  as  it  is 
possible  for  it  to  be,  then  we  answer  in  the  negative.  But  if  it 
means  that  every  faculty  of  it  is  corrupt — that  it  is,  without 
regeneration,  unfit  for  heaven — then  we  unhesitatingly  answer 
in  the  affirmative.  There  are,  certainly,  degrees,  so  to  speak,  in 
wickedness.     Some  souls  are  more  debased  and  corrupt  than 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  263 

others,  owing  to  surrounding  influences;  but,  as  stated  pre- 
viously, all  are  defiled  and  wholly  defiled.  To  illustrate :  A 
glass  of  water  containing  a  few  grains  of  arsenic  is  a  poison ; 
but  twice  the  amount  of  the  deadly  drug  will  make  that  water  a 
still  greater  poison.     Just  so  with  the  human  soul." 

2.  All  mankind  have  become  subject  to  death.  In  other 
words,  because  of  the  act  of  the  original  transgressors  they 
were  made  mortal,  and  thus,  "  through  their  act,"  "  they  being 
the  root  of  all  mankind,"  "  death  passed  upon  all  men." 

Whatever  other  signification  the  word  may  in  some  instances 
have,  it  is  unquestionable  that  in  many  passages  of  Scripture 
the  term  "  death,"  as  expressive  of  an  effect  that  came  upon  the 
race  in  consequence  of  its  relation  to  the  original  transgressor, 
•is  used  most  literally  in  the  sense  of  the  dissolution  of  the  body. 
For  instance,  i  Cor.  xv.  21,  22,  can  not,  without  ignoring  alike 
the  laws  of  language  and  all  logical  juxtaposition  of  ideas,  be 
made  to  yield  any  other  meaning  of  the  terms  "  death  "  and 
"  die,"  than  that  which  they  usually  have  as  applied  to  bodily 
dissolution  :  "  For  since  by  man  came  death,  by  man  came  also 
the  resurrection  of  the  dead.  For  as  in  Adam  all  die,  even  so 
in  Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive."  That  is  to  say.  As  in  conse- 
quence of  his  sin,  all  the  natural  descendants  of  Adam  are  par- 
takers of  natural  death,  so  through  Christ  shall  all  men  be  made 
alive  by  a  resurrection  of  the  dead. 

In  Romans  v.  12,  we  are  taught,  not  only  that  by  man  came 
death,  but  why  it  is  so :  "  Wherefore  as  by  one  man  sin  entered 
into  the  world,  and  death  by  sin ;  and  so  death  passed  upon  all 
men,  for  that  all  have  sinned." 

As  Calvinists  rely  upon  this  text  for  proof  of  the  doctrine  of 
the  imputation  of  Adam's  sin  to  his  posterity,  it  is  well  that  it  be 
briefly  considered  in  this  connection.  And  how  is  the  text 
made  to  teach  imputation?  Simply  by  reading  "imputation" 
into  it,  thus:  "And  so  death  passed  upon  all  men,  for  that  all 
have  sinned  "  (z>z  Adam). 


264         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

If  we  assign  to  the  word  "impute"  the  theological  meaning 
given  to  it  by  Dr.  Hodge  (Commentary  on  the  Confession,  p. 
156),  namely,  "  to  lay  to  the  charge  or  credit  of  any  one  as  a 
ground  of  judicial  punishment  or  justification,"  we  are  con- 
strained to  say  that  we  fail  to  find  the  doctrine  in  the  Bible,  and 
that  it  contravenes  the  fundamental  principles  of  moral  govern- 
ment and  moral  rectitude  as  they  are  taught  by  the  word  of 
God. 

If  we  sinned  in  Adam,  we  should  repent  of  Adam's  sin;  but 
that  were  a  moral  impossibility.  We  may  disapprove,  regret, 
deplore  Adam's  sin,  but  to  repent  of  it,  or  of  our  having  "sinned 
in  him,"  is  a  moral  and  psychological  impossibility. 

The  argument  runs  thus  :  Death  comes  through  sin.  Infants 
die.  But  infants  have  committed  no  actual  sin  ;  and  therefore, 
the  sins  of  another  must  be  imputed  to  them — that  is,  laid  to 
their  charge  as  a  ground  of  judicial  punishment. 

If  because  of  "the  vices  of  its  parents  a  child  inherits  the  seeds. 
of  disease,  and  early  passes  to  the  tomb,  shall  we  say  that  its 
weakness,  sufferings,  and  death  are  a  judicial  punishment 
inflicted  on  it  by  divine  retribution  because  its  parents'  guilt  is 
imputed  to  the  child  ?  The  thought  is  abhorrent  to  reason  and 
to  our  ideas  of  the  Judge  of  all,  who  is  good  and  righteous  in  all 
his  ways.  Nor  is  the  case  in  any  degree  mended,  if  we  say  that 
God's  retributive  justice  punishes  the  child  with  death  because 
the  guilt  of  Adam's  sin  is  impiited  to  it.  A  child  may  die, 
indeed,  because  of  the  sins  of  its  parents,  but  not  because  guilty 
of  them  ;  and  thousands  do  annually  pass  in  infancy  to  the 
grave  because  of  the  vices  of  parents.  And  so  it  is  true  that,  in 
the  divinely  appointed  economy  of  this  world,  sin  and  death  are 
inseparably  linked  ;  and  as  Adam  sinned,  death  came  to  him ; 
and  since  through  (this)  "one  man  sin  entered  the  world,"  death 
entered  by  sin,  for  all  have  sinned,  and  must,  by  the  ver}^  consti- 
tution of  human  nature,  entail  sin  and  mortality  upon  all  born 
of  them  as  parents  sinful  and  mortal." 


CUMBERIvAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  265 

As  the  passage  in  the  fifth  chapter  of  Romans  is  cited  by  all 
imputationists  in  support  of  their  position,  we  ask  the  reader's 
careful  attention  to  the  following  remarks  of  Dr.  Forbes,  him- 
self an  imputationist,  in  his  most  valuable  Analytical  Commeji- 
iary  on  Roma7is,  pp.  208-9  • 

"  The  restriction  of  the  words,  '  For  that  all  have  sinned,'  to 
mere  imputation  is  contrary  to  the  context.  The  verb  '  sinned ' 
must  take  its  meaning  from  what  precedes  and  follows.  '  Sin ' 
in  the  words  of  verse  12,  'By  one  man  sin  entered  into  the 
world,'  can  not,  as  has  been  shown,  refer  to  mere  guilt  only,  or 
imputed  sin.  In  the  words  again  that  follow  in  verse  13,  '  For 
until  the  law  sin  was  in  the  world,'  the  reference  manifestly  is 
to  the  historical  existence  of  sin  in  the  world,  as  evidenced  by 
the  murder  of  Abel  by  Cain,  by  the  general  violence  which  had 
filled  the  earth  before  the  flood,  and  which  called  forth  that 
awful  judgment  from  the  Lord,  because  '  all  flesh  had  corrupted 
his  way  upon  the  earth,'  by  the  sins  of  the  Sodomites,  etc.,  in  all 
which  cases  sin  was  '  imputed  '  by  God  to  the  perpetrators  per- 
sonally, proving  therefore  that  the  sin  for  which  they  sufiered 
was  not  imputed  sin  (in  the  sense  of  the  transgression  of  another 
being  reckoned  to  them),  but  their  own  personal  sin." 

In  theological  views,  no  less  than  in  other  respects,  it  is  often 
true  that  one  extreme  leads  to  another.  In  controverting  the 
views  of  Pelagius,  who  taught  that  Adam's  sin  injured  only 
himself,  and  that  infants  come  into  the  world  as  pure  as  Adam 
was  before  the  fall,  his  great  contemporary  Augustine  was  led  to 
look  upon  the  human  race  as  a  "compact  mass,  a  collective 
body,  responsible  in  its  unity  and  solidarity,"  and  formally  pro- 
mulgated the  doctrine  of  imputation,  in  these  words :  ''As  alt 
men  have  simied  in  Adam,  they  are  justly  subject  to  the  con- 
demnation of  God  on  account  of  this  hereditary  siyi  and  the  guilt 
thereof r 

And  so  the  Westminster  Confession  :  "  They  being  the  root 
of  all  mankind,  the  guilt  of  this  sin  was  imputed,  and  the  same 


266         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

death  in  sin  and  corrupted  nature  conveyed  to  all  their  pos- 
terity, descending  from  them  by  ordinary  generation." 

And  so  the  Westminster  Catechism,  in  the  answer  to  the 
sixteenth  question  :  "  The  covenant  being  made  with  Adam,  not 
only  for  himself  but  for  his  posterity ;  all  mankind,  descending 
from  him  by  ordinary  generation,  siniied  171  him,  and  fell  with 
him,  in  his  original  transgression." 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Miller,  in  his  chapter  on  "  original  or  birth  sin," 
in  the  work  hitherto  noticed,  says  that  "  the  Westminster  Con- 
fession is  characteristically  severe,"  and  admits  that  some  of  the 
strong  phrases  of  the  Calvinistic  standards  may,  on  a  superficial 
view,  be  justly  liable  to  the  charge  of  teaching  fatality,  and,  for 
defending  them  from  the  charge  of  fatality,  proposes  an  illogical 
and  novel  device.  "  Does  not  the  pronounced  imputation  of 
guilt,"  he  asks,  "  in  these  reformed  standards  preclude  the 
charge  of  Manichaeism,  since  human  nature  is  no  longer  essen- 
tially a  mass  of  corruption  and  perdition,  but  only  impiita- 
lively  f  "  But  this  expedient  for  getting  rid  of  the  "  utterly  in- 
disposed, disabled,  and  made  opposite  to  all  good,  and  wholly 
inclined  to  all  evil "  (which  Calvinism  not  only  declares  to  be 
man's  state,  but  to  render  him  utterly  incapable  of  freedom 
toward  good  until  unconditionally  regenerated  by  divine  influ- 
ence), is  inadequate,  for  it  ignores  the  obvious  fact  that  cor- 
ruption is  not  "  imputed,"  and  in  the  nature  of  the  case  can  not 
be.  Guilt  can  be  imputed.  The  Westminster  Confession 
rightly  says  that  "  death  in  sin  and  corrupted  nature"  the  first 
parents  "  cotiveyed  \.o  all  their  posterit3^"  Neither  personal  guilt 
nor  imputed  guilt  necessarily  impairs  the  freedom  of  the  will. 

"Among  the  Arminians  or  Remonstrants,"  says  Mr.  Miller, 
"  the  tenet  of  the  universality  of  redemption  is  held  side  by  side 
with  that  of  the  human  will  to  co-operate  with  divine  grace, 
both  positions  being  firml)^  taken  by  distinguished  Anglicans 
like  Jeremy  Taylor  and  Isaac  Barrow.  Richard  Baxter  himself, 
strict  Puritan  in  other  respects,  has  strong  leanings  this  way." 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  267 

On  this  broad,  solid,  and,  as  we  must  believe  it,  scriptural 
"  medium  ground  "  in  theology,  in  company  with  Taylor  and 
Barrow  and  Baxter,  of  England,  stand  Donnell  and  Bird  and 
Beard  and  other  men  of  cherished  memory  in  the  Cumberland 
Presbyterian  Church. 

We  have  dwelt  upon  the  subject  of  man's  present  moral  and 
spiritual  state  as  affected  by  the  original  transgression,  not  only 
because  it  is  a  subject  of  interest  and  of  vital  relations  in  a 
theological  system,  but  also  because  much  of  the  public  teaching 
on  the  subject  is  not  accordant  with  human  experience  and  is, 
therefore,  unsatisfying  to  the  minds  of  the  thoughtful.  No 
other  than  a  rational  theology  can  be  a  true  theology,  for  all 
truth  is  harmonious.* 

We  will  be  greatlj-  helped  in  our  endeavor  for  clear  and  satis- 
fying views  on  this  subject  if  we  keep  in  mind  two  obvious  facts : 

I.  Man  is  subject  to  much  evil  that  is  in  no  proper  sense  a 
direct  result  of  sin.  To  suppose  that  all  evil  or  suffering  im- 
plies sin  as  its  cause,  is  an  old,  old  error.     "  Who  did  sin,  this 

*We  can  not  overestimate  the  value  of  the  declaration  of  Mark  Hopkins, 
that  "  Nothing  that  can  be  shown  to  be  really  in  opposition  either  to  the 
reason  or  the  moral  nature  of  man  can  be  from  God."  And  so,  as  he 
further  asserts  :  "  If  Christianity  be  not  fundamentally  in  accord  with  our 
original  constitution,  and  will  not  restore  man  to  a  true  manhood,  and  the 
highest  manhood,  we  can  not  accept  it." 

In  the  following  paragraph  we  must  recognize  not  only  a  just  distinc- 
tion made  between  the  relation  of  Adam  and  that  of  his  posterity,  to 
temporal  death,  but  also  a  just  and  needful  warning  as  to  the  pernicious 
effects  of  propagating  theological  dogmas  at  war  with  man's  reason,  or 
those  moral  ideas  fundamental  to  the  conception  of  moral  government : 
"All  the  criminality  belongs  to  Adam„and  we  are  no  more  guilty  of  his 
sin,"  says  Frame,  "  than  Christ  was  guilty  of  ours.  Temporal  death  was 
punishment  to  Adam,  but  it  is  onlj-  suffering  to  his  posterity.  No  wonder 
that  infidelity  abounds,  when  the  professed  defenders  of  the  Faith  main- 
tain that  we  are  guilty  of  Adam's  sin.  There  is  no  intelligent  man, 
-with  an  unbiased  mind,  who  will  believe  that  he  is  guilty  of  a  sin 
committed  by  another,  and  that,  too,  thousands  of  years  before  he  was 
born.  It  is  this  and  similar  absurdities  that  have  driven  so  man}'  of 
our  intelligent  and  inquiring  young  men  into  the  ranks  of  a  hopeless 
infidelity." 


268         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

man,  or  his  parents,  that  he  was  born  blind?  "  "  Neither,"  said 
the  Master.  Yet  it  is  true  that  much  of  the  evil  in  the  world  is 
directly  or  indirectly  the  result  of  sin.  Says  Mark  Hopkins, 
than  whom  our  century  has  not  had  a  clearer  or  profounder 
thinker  on  man's  moral  nature  and  relations,  "  Evil  from  acci- 
dent, or  misfortune,  or  from  the  laws  of  nature  as  regarded 
impersonal,  is  not  punishment."  Many  good  people  are  sorely 
perplexed  in  their  faith  simply  because  they  refer  to  a  "  myste- 
rious providence  of  God"  sufferings  that  arise  from  their  own 
mistakes,  from  the  wills  of  other  people,  or  otherwise  are  inci- 
dent to  the  state  of  things  of  which  man,  a  finite  and  fallible 
creature,  is  a  part. 

2.  Humanity,  in  this  earthly  state,  is  a  great  rational,  moral, 
sentient  economy  in  which  the  well-being  of  each  is  largely 
dependent  on  the  will  and  behavior  of  others.  In  the  nature  of 
the  case,  which  we  must  regard  of  divine  ordaining,  this  princi- 
ple of  interdependence  and  representation  is  of  the  widest 
prevalence,  and  we  are  constrained  to  believe  that  it  is  not 
limited  to  the  sentient  creatures  of  this  little  sphere.  In  the 
case  of  husband  and  wife,  parents  and  children,  ruler  and  sub- 
jects, we  see  the  operation  of  this  principle  under  relations 
which  make  the  well-being  of  some  necessarily  and  ver}^  largely 
dependent  on  the  knowledge  and  virtue  of  others ;  but  nowhere 
do  we  see  the  operation  of  that  principle  which  is  involved 
in  what  speculative  theologians  have  attempted  to  fasten 
upon  the  teachings  of  God's  word  under  the  name  of  "  imputa- 
tion y 

Holding  firmly,  then,  by  the  plain  teaching  of  God's  word, 
that  "by  one  man  sin  entered  the  world;"  and  that  from  the 
original  transgressor  corruption  of  moral  faculties  passed  to  his 
posterity ;  and  that  death  came  by  sin,  since,  because  of  inher- 
ited depravity,  "  all  have  sinned,"  and  so  death  passed  to  all 
men ;  and  since  man  in  this  fallen  condition  is  under  moral 
weakness  because  of  depravity,  and  under  just  condemnation 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  269 

for  actual  sin,  we  are  led  to  consider  the  divine  and  merciful  pro- 
vision for  man's  restoration  through 

5.  A  covenant  of  grace. 

"  Man,  by  his  fall,  having  made  himself  incapable  of  life  by 
that  covenant  (of  works),  the  Lord  was  pleased  to  make  the 
second,  commonly  called  the  covenant  of  grace,  wherein  he 
freely  offers  unto  sinners  life  and  salvation  by  Jesus  Christ, 
requiring  of  them  faith  in  him  that  they  may  be  saved."  (Con- 
fession, section  23.) 

A  covenant  implies,  (i)  parties,  (2)  promise,  (3)  conditions,  (4) 
penalty.  Man  w^as  originally  a  party  to  what  is  usually  called 
the  "  covenant  of  works,"  God  being  the  other  party.  God 
promised  the  reward  of  life,  on  condition  of  obedience,  and  fixed 
the  penalty  of  disobedience.  This  covenant  is  styled  also  the 
"  covenant  of  life,"  as  it  promised  life,  and  the  "  legal  covenant," 
because  the  condition  was  obedience  to  law. 

But  the  first  parents  failed  to  obtain  life  and  blessedness  under 
the  first  covenant,  and  involved  themselves  in  guilt  which  justly 
exposed  them  to  penal  sufferings  while  they  also  rendered  the 
race  subject  to  ph5'sical  death,  and  involved  them  in  moral 
depravity  which  rendered  spiritual  life  and  blessedness  morally 
impossible.  Man's  dire  necessity  is  God's  stupendous  opportu- 
nity to  demonstrate,  not  to  man  only,  but,  in  providing  deliver- 
ance for  man,  to  show  to  all  his  universe  of  moral  subjects,  that 
he  is  gracious  and  merciful,  not  willing  the  death  of  his  rational 
creatures,  and  capable,  in  his  infinite  wisdom,  of  so  providing 
for  the  redemption  of  man,  as  to  more  than  secure  all  the  moral 
ends  which  demanded  the  death  of  the  transgressor. 

Here  we  reach  another  of  the  vital  points  wherein  Cumber- 
land Presbyterian  doctrine  differs  materially  from  Westminster 
theolog>\  The  latter  system  teaches,  according  to  Hodge's 
Commentary  on  the  Confession,  "  that  God  having  determined  to 
save  the  elect  out  of  the  mass  of  the  race  fallen  in  Adam, 
appointed  his  Son  to  become  incarnate  in  our  nature,  and  as  the 


270         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

Christ  or  God-man  Mediator,  he  appointed  him  to  be  the  second 
Adam  and  representative  head  of  redeemed  humanity,  and  as 
such  entered  into  a  covenant  with  him  and  with  his  seed  in  him. 
In  this  covenant  the  Mediator  assumes  in  behalf  of  his  elect  seed 
the  broken  co7iditions  of  the  old  covenant  of  works  precisely  as 
Adam  left  them.  Adam  had  failed  to  obey,  and  therefore  for- 
feited life ;  he  had  sinned,  and  therefore  incurred  the  endless 
penalty  of  death.  Christ  therefore  suffered  the  penalty  and 
extingidshed  in  behalf  of  all  whom  he  represented  the  claims  of  the 
old  covena7it,  and  at  the  same  time  he  rendered  a  perfect  vicari- 
ous obedience,  which  was  the  very  condition  upon  which  eternal 
life  had  been  originally  offered.  All  this  Christ  does  as  a  prin- 
cipal party  with  God  to  the  covenant  in  acting  as  the  representa- 
tive of  his  own  people.''' 

We  have  indicated  by  italics  the  more  prominent  parts  of  the 
foregoing  which  contrast  Westminster  theology  with  that  of  our 
own  Church.  The  following  paragraph  from  Hodge's  Commen- 
tary contains  language  that  is  certainly  remarkable,  and  such 
as  we  must  think  scarcely  anj'  believer  in  the  God  of  the  Bible 
could  use  unless  in  extenuation  of  a  theory  abhorrent  to  reason  : 

"  Subsequent^,  in  the  administration  and  gracious  application 
of  this  covenant,  Christ  the  Mediator  offers  the  blessings  secured 
by  it  to  all  men  on  condition  of  faith — that  is,  he  bids  all  men  to 
lay  hold  of  these  blessings  by  the  instrumentality  of  faith,  and 
he  promises  that  if  they  do  so  they  shall  certainly  enjoy  them  ; 
and  he,  as  the  mediatorial  surety  of  his  people,  insures  for  them 
that  their  faith  and  obedience  shall  not  fail." 

"  The  Calvinistic  view,"  as  Dr.  Hodge  designates  it,  and  as  he 
has  briefly  sketched  it  for  us,  teaches  :  (i)  that  God  "  determined 
to  save  the  elect  out  of  the  race  fallen  in  Adam ;  (2)  that  he 
appointed  his  incarnate  Son  to  be  the  second  Adam  and  repre- 
sentative head  of  redeemed  humanity  "  (the  elect) ;  (3)  that  "  the 
Mediator  assumes  in  behalf  of  his  elect  seed  the  broken  condi- 
tions  of   the   old   covenant   of   works,"  and  so  "suffered  the 


CUMBERIvAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH. 


271 


penalty  and  extinguished  in  behalf  of  all  he  represented  the 
claims  of  the  old  covenant,"  and  "rendered  (for  the  elect)  a  per- 
fect vicarious  obedience,"  or  fulfilled  "  the  very  condition  upon 
which  eternal  life  had  been  originally  offered; "  (4)  that  the  rest 
of  mankind  were  passed  by,  as  not  being  elect,  and  were  not 
included  in  those  for  whom  Christ  covenanted,  suffered,  and- 
obeyed ;  (5)  that,  consequently,  all  the  guilt  of  Adam's  sin,  as 
imputed  to  them,  and  of  their  personal  transgressions  remains 
against  the  non-elect,  without  any  propitiation  whereby  it  would 
be  possible  for  these  sins  to  be  forgiven  or  for  the  non-elect  to 
be  saved ;  and  yet,  (6)  in  the  administration  and  gracious  appli- 
cation of  this  covenant  Christ  the  Mediator  "  offers  the  blessings 
(secured  by  the  covenant)  to  all  men  on  condition  of  faith  !  " 

Christ  "  offers  "  the  non-elect  the  blessings  of  the  covenant  of 
grace,  says  Dr.  Hodge.  What  does  Dr.  Hodge  mean,  what  can 
he  mean  by  his  emphasized  ''offers''  them  the  blessings  of  the 
covenant,  save  that  it  is  an  offer  without  any  thing  offered  ?  Is 
Christ  chargeable  with  such  mockery  ?  Having  unconditionally 
excluded  a  portion  of  the  human  race  from  the  covenant,  and 
left  them  without  power  to  repent  or  believe,  Christ  now, 
according  to  this  Calvinistic  theology,  "  bids  all  men  to  laj^  hold 
of  these  blessings  "  by  faith.  That  is  to  say  that  Christ,  denying 
to  a  portion  of  humanity  the  power  to  believe,  bids  them  believe 
and  so  "  lay  hold  on  "  blessings  neither  provided  nor  designed 
for  them !  If  this  is  Calvinism,  as  one  of  its  eminent  ex- 
pounders states,  can  we  wonder,  that,  as  Rev.  John  Miller 
declares,  Calvinism  has  successively  died  in  seven  of  its  great 
doctrinal  centers  ? — We  notice  finally : 

6.  The  fullness  and  universality  of  the  covenant  of  grace  under 
the  New  Testament  dispensation. 

The  administration  of  the  scheme  of  redemption  has  been  a 
progress  at  once  grand  and  wonderful.  Is  it  possible  for  the 
student  of  history  to  believe  that  no  other  will  and  no  other 
power  than  man's  has  guided  and  effected  the  long  series  of 


272         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

events  which  culminated  in  the  dissolution  and  removal  of  the 
Judaic  state,  and  the  ushering  in  of  this  simpler,  fuller,  and 
universal  dispensation  of  what  is  called  the  gospel  ?  The  race 
has  no  better,  no  higher  hope  than  this  gospel  of  love.  In  the 
moral  sky  there  is  no  Sun  of  Righteousness  but  the  center  of  this 
gospel  administration.  This  is  "  the  dispensation  of  the  fullness 
of  times,"  in  which  believers  of  all  nations  are  to  be  gathered 
into  one  brotherhood  of  peace  and  good  will,  that  these  and  the 
family  of  God  in  heaven  may  be  united  under  Christ,  to  reign 
with  him  in  the  new  heavens  and  new  earth  wherein  only  the 
righteous  shall  dwell. 


CUMBERIvAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  273 


CHAPTER  IX. 

IfREE    WILL — THE    MORAL    LAW — MORAL    GOVERNMENT — MAN'S 
FREEDOM   CONSISTENT  WITH   GOD'S  SOVEREIGNTY. 

"  34.  God,  in  creating  man  in  his  own  likeness,  endued  him  with  intelli- 
gence, sensibility,  and  will,  which  form  the  basis  of  moral  character,  and 
render  man  capable  of  moral  government. 

"  35.  The  freedom  of  the  will  is  a  fact  of  human  consciousness,  and  is 
the  sole  ground  of  accountability  Man,  in  his  state  of  innocence,  was 
both  free  and  able  to  keep  the  divine  law,  also  to  violate.  Without  any 
constraint  from  either  physical  or  moral  causes,  he  did  violate  it. 

"  36.  Man,  by  disobedience,  lost  his  innocence,  forfeited  the  favor  of 
God,  became  corrupt  in  heart  and  inclined  to  evil.  In  this  state  of  spirit- 
ual death  and  condemnation,  man  is  still  free  and  responsible ;  yet,  with- 
out the  illuminating  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  he  is  unable  either  to 
keep  the  law  or  lay  hold  upon  the  hope  set  before  him  in  the  gospel. 

"  37-  When  the  sinner  is  born  of  God,  he  loves  him  supremely,  and 
steadfastly  purposes  to  do  his  will ;  yet  because  of  remaining  corruption, 
and  of  his  imperfect  knowledge  of  moral  and  spiritual  things,  he  often 
wills  what  in  itself  is  sinful.  This  imperfect  knowledge  and  corruption 
remain,  in  greater  or  less  force,  during  the  present  life ;  hence  the  con- 
flict between  the  flesh  and  the  spirit." — Coftfession  of  Faith. 

"  There  is  nothing  good  or  evil,  save  in  the  will" — Epictetus. 

"  To  deny  the  freedom  of  the  will  is  to  make  morality  impossible.^'' — 
Froude. 

I.  Freedom  of  the  Will. 
ALIKE  in  their  pulpit  ministrations  and  in  their  doctrinal 
"^^  discussions,  Cumberland  Presbyterians  have  plainly  taught 
and  strenuously  insisted  on  the  freedom  of  the  human  will.  In 
their  theological  sj'stem,  freedom  is  a  basic  and  essential  truth. 
Freedom  denied,  human  conduct  is  divested  of  every  trace  of  a 
moral  phase,  and  the  term  virtue  can  stand  for  no  such  reality 
as  the  common  sense  of  mankind  attaches  to  it.     "I  do  not  per- 


274  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

form  an  act,"  says  Le  Devoir,  "  I  do  not  pronounce  a  word, 
which  does  not  suppose  a  belief  in  my  liberty  and  in  that  of 

others Deny  the  belief  in  liberty,  and  society  falls  to 

pieces."  With  the  ancient  philosopher  whose  sentiment  we 
have  cited  above,  and  with  Mr.  Froude,  Mark  Hopkins  tells  us 
that  "  all  virtue  is  from  the  will,  as  all  knowledge  is  from  the 
intellect."  To  these  opinions  of  profound  thinkers  we  must  add 
the  common  judgment  of  mankind,  of  which  a  judicious  writer 
observes  that  "  a  fact  so  universal  has  many  chances  of  being  in 
conformity  with  reality." 

It  is  well  known,  however,  that  the  denial  of  the  freedom  of 
the  will,  in  one  form  or  another,  and  by  positive  assertion  or 
logical  inference,  has  found  place  alike  in  religious  creeds  and 
philosophical  systems.  Fatality,  necessity,  determinism,  or 
the  denial  of  freedom,  by  whatever  name,  has  been  also  a  favor- 
ite refuge  of  atheists  and  infidels.  Of  the  atheist  of  his  day, 
Jeremy  Collier  says :  "  If  you  will  take  his  word  for  it,  an  athe- 
ist is  a  very  despicable  mortal,  ....  no  better  than  a  heap  of 
organized  dust,  a  stalking  machine,  a  speaking  head  without  a 

soul  in  it He  has  no  more  liberty  than  the  current  of  a 

stream  or  the  blast  of  a  tempest ;  and  where  there  is  no  choice 
there  can  be  no  merit." 

Greek  and  Roman  philosophy  had  its  "  destiny "  {fatuni) 
whereby  the  events  of  every  human  life  evolved  along  a  course 
irreversibly  predetermined.  Pantheism  and  Mohammedanism 
alike  bind  man's  action  by  a  power  that  excludes  the  idea  of 
freedom.  The  materialist  tells  us  that  volitions  only  seemingly 
proceed  from  free  will,  while  they  are  simply  necessary  move- 
ments dependent  on  states  of  the  brain,  which  states  are  in  turn 
dependent  on  influences  external  to  the  body.  The  evolutionist 
will  have  it  that  man  is  "  the  resultant  of  his  ancestors,"  and  that 
so  his  will  is  but  the  eflfect  of  many  and  long  continued  causes,  in 
the  grasp  of  which  causes  it  is  "  tied  to  its  course  by  a  law  of  nature, 
as  a  planet  to  its  orbit  or  a  plant  to  the  soil  on  which  it  grows." 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  275 

Of  the  old  idea  of  "  destiny,"  a  recent  vigorous  thinker  on 
psychological  subjects  says,  "  Even  in  the  Christian  religion 
there  remain  some  traces  of  this  conception  of  destiny,  pre- 
sented, it    is    true,  under  the  feature  of  a  personal  God,  the 

absolute  master  of  all  the  events  of  the  world In  some 

Christian  sects,  belief  in  predestination  has  become  a  dogma ;  " 
and  by  predestination  is  meant,  the  author  quoted  tells  us,  a 
"  purpose  formed  by  God  from  all  eternity  to  cast  away  certain 
men  and  to  save  others."  Similarly,  as  the  same  author  hints, 
the  idea  of  "  grace,"  in  the  sense  of  divine  assistance  needful  to 
the  accomplishment  of  good  and  the  sanctification  of  the  soul, 
granted  to  some  and  refused  to  others,  "  has  direct  relations 
with  fatalism." 

Against  this  theological  dogma,  whether  the  fatality  implied 
is  made  to  depend  on  an  eternal  predestination  of  ever^'^  individ- 
ual of  the  race  to  a  specific  doom  from  which  escape  is  impos- 
sible, or  upon  a  limited  atonement,  or  upon  the  denial  of  the 
grace  without  which  salvation  is  impossible,  Cumberland  Pres- 
byterians protest,  as  they  do  also  against  all  theological  premises 
which  by  logical  inference  lead  to  such  a  dogma.  The  men 
who  were  instrumental  in  organizing  the  Church  accepted  the 
Westminster  Confession  of  Faith  as  a  doctrinal  standard  "  so  far 
as  they  believed  it  consistent  with  the  word  of  God,"  meaning 
thereby  that  they  excepted  the  doctrine  of  fatality. 

The  fact  of  the  freedom  of  man  in  willing  is  assured  to  him 
through  consciousness.  Not  only  is  he  conscious  of  putting 
forth  volition,  but  conscious  of  doing  it  freely,  and  conscious  of 
power  to  refrain  from  the  choice  made.  Free  will  is  man's 
power,  as  Condillac  well  said,  "  of  doing  what  he  does  not  do, 
and  of  not  doing  what  he  does  do."  He  who  does  not  reverence 
the  name  of  God  has  power  to  do  so ;  and  he  who  desecrates 
the  Sabbath  and  deals  fraudulently  has  power  7iot  to  do  these 
things.  Nothing  short  of  this  idea  of  moral  freedom  can  afford 
any  basis  for  merit,  responsibility,  or  rewards  and  penalties. 


276         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

To  say  that  man  wills  freel}-  what  he  does  will,  but  could  not 
will  otherwise  than  what  he  does  will,  is  to  give  him  only  the 
freedom  of  the  water  in  the  flowing  stream. 

Further,  it  is  Cumberland  Presbyterian  doctrine  that  while 
through  disobedience  man  became  "  corrupt  in  heart  and 
inclined  to  evil,"  yet  is  man  not  by  this  depravity  under  a 
fatal  necessity  of  sinning,  but  is  "  still  free  and  responsible  by 
virtue  of  the  gracious  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit."  God  wills 
not  the  death  of  any,  and  as  he  "  commands  all  men  everywhere 
to  repent,"  we  must  believe  that  men  are  capable  of  the  repent- 
ance required  of  them.  The  wrath  of  God  is  not  manifested 
against  the  ungodly  because  of  an  unconditioned  appointment 
of  them  to  wrath,  on  God's  part,  nor  because  of  any  fatal  impo- 
tency  of  will  in  them,  but  "  because  knowing  God  they  glorified 
him  not  as  God,  nor  gave  thanks ;  but  became  vain  in  their  rea- 
sonings, and  their  foolish  heart  was  darkened." 

Cumberland  Presb^^terians  not  only  preach  a  gospel  designed 
for  all  men,  but  believe  that  they  preach  to  men  who  have  the 
power  to  accept  this  gospel  by  exercise  of  the  ability  that  is  in 
them  to  will  to  turn  away  from  sin,  to  accept  Christ  as  their 
Savior,  and  to  keep  the  commandments  of  God.  This  view  of 
the  gospel  and  of  man's  ability,  under  the  dispensation  of  the 
Spirit,  to  accept  the  gospel,  should  be  constantly  pressed  upon 
the  sinner's  attention.  "  Fallen  man  can,"  says  Rev.  Robert 
Donnell,  "  upon  the  gospel  plan  choose  life  or  death,  blessing  or 
cursing.  This  is  abundantly  evident  from  the  word  of  God: 
'  Choose  ye  this  day  whom  ye  will  serve '  (Josh.  xxiv.  15)  ;  '  Ye 
will  not  come  unto  me  that  ye  might  have  life '  (John  v.  40) ; 
'  Whosoever  will,  let  him  take  the  water  of  life  freely '  (Rev. 
xxii.  17)." 

It  is  true,  as  the  Confession  asserts,  that  "  when  the  sinner  is 
born  of  God  he  loves  him  supremely,  and  steadfastly  purposes 
to  do  his  will;"  but  it  is  not  to  be  inferred  that  Cumberland 
Presbj^terians  teach,  therefore,  that  until  one  is  born  again  he 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  277 

can  put  forth  no  effort  to  comply  with  the  terms  of  the  gospel. 
To  those  yet  unconverted,  the  exhortation  is,  "  Choose  ye  this 
day  whom  ye  will  serve."  Of  men  who  were  not  yet  "  born 
again  "  the  Master  said,  when  commanding  the  eleven  to  go  into 
all  the  world  and  preach  his  gospel,  "  he  that  believeth  and  is 
baptized  shall  be  saved."  Man  must  choose  the  service  of  God — 
must  choose  salvation  as  offered  in  Christ,  and  not  passively  wait 
to  be  "  born  again  "  in  order  to  be  able  to  choose. 

The  doctrine  of  "  irresistible  grace,"  the  doctrine  of  an  "  effec- 
tual call,"  in  the  sense  that  some  receive  such,  and  others 
receive  only  "common"  or  necessarily  ineffectual  "operations 
of  grace,"  and  the  doctrine  that  man  is  passive  until  born  again, 
as  to  the  matter  of  personal  salvation,  are  errors  which  have 
wrecked  multitudes  of  souls,  and  errors  against  which  the  ear- 
lier Cumberland  Presbyterian  ministers  frequently  protested 
with  great  earnestness  and  power  of  logic. 

Cumberland  Presbyterian  theology,  with  its  fundamental 
premises  of  the  impartial  goodness  of  God,  a  general  atonement, 
the  offer  of  life  to  all  men,  the  general  operation  of  the  Spirit 
through  which  man  is  enabled  to  repent  and  believe,  and  the 
freedom  of  the  will,  is  a  theology  of  common  sense,  conformable, 
on  the  subjective  side,  to  the  normal  conscious  experiences  of 
the  soul,  and  opposed  to  fatality  and  every  species  of  religious 
mysticism. 

It  is  scarcely  possible  for  us  to  overestimate  the  importance 
of  correct  views  of  the  freedom  of  the  will  as  a  co-ordinating 
principle  in  a  rational  system  of  theology  and  of  religion. 
Equally  important  is  it  in  its  relations  to  religious  experience 
and  practical  godliness.  It  is  choosing  to  repent  of  and  forsake 
sin,  choosing  the  salvation  offered  in  Christ,  choosing  to  accept 
the  commandments  of  Christ  as  the  rule  of  life,  choosing  to  con- 
secrate himself  to  God's  service  and  human  welfare,  that  makes 
a  man  a  Christian ;  and  it  is  choosing  to  continue  steadfast  until 
death  that  causes  his  path  to  shine  more  and  more  unto  the  per- 


278         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

feet  day,  and  crowns  him  with  eternal  life.  And  yet  it  is  "  all  oi\ 
grace"  that  he  is  called,  that  every  one  is  called,  thus  to  "seek 
after  glory,  honor,  and  immortality."  "  By  faith  Moses,  when  he 
was  come  to  years,  refused  to  be  called  the  son  of  Pharaoh's 
daughter,  choosing  rather  to  suffer  affliction  with  the  people  of 
God  than  to  enjoy  the  pleasures  of  sin  for  a  season,  for  he  had 
respect  to  (looked  to)  the  recompense  of  the  reward."  If  much 
of  the  preaching  of  to-day  does  not  lay  too  much  stress  on  the 
idea  of  getti7ig  religion,  it  certainly  does  lay  too  little  stress,  the 
Bible  being  witness,  on  the  idea  of  choosing  religion,  living 
religion,  doing  religion. 

Between  the  teachings  of  hyper-Calvinism  and  the  phenom- 
ena of  mind  as  attested  in  man's  consciousness  there  is  an  irrec- 
oncileable  antagonism.  Calvinism  sweeps  away  the  principles 
that  must  underlie  all  just  conceptions  of  moral  government, 
utterly  divesting  man  of  that  self-determination  which  is  the 
sole  faculty  through  the  conscious  exercise  of  which  it  is  possible 
for  him  to  give  himself  to  God  or  to  rebel  against  God's  right- 
eous claims.  Not  the  heathen  philosophy  which  exalted  "  des- 
tiny "  to  the  throne  of  the  universe  as  a  power  swaying  irresisti- 
bly the  wills  of  gods  as  well  as  of  men,  nor  the  baldest  material- 
ism of  to-day,  which  regards  matter  as  eternal  and  all  phenom- 
ena, those  of  mind  included,  as  but  links  in  an  endless  chain  of 
fatalistic  causation,  is  more  subversive  of  rational  ideas  of  virtue 
and  of  moral  government  than  is  that  theological  system  of 
necessity  which  the  genius  of  Augustine  and  afterward  that  of 
Calvin  attempted  to  fasten  on  the  thought  of  the  Christian 
world ;  and  in  their  efforts  to  aid  the  mind  in  emancipating  itself 
from  these  shackles  Cumberland  Presbyterians  have  rendered 
useful  service  to  the  cause  of  evangelical  truth. 

The  professed  belief,  on  the  part  of  Calvinists,  of  what  are 
irreconcileable  contradictions  is  a  puzzling  psychological  phe- 
nomenon. For  instance,  what  more  could  an  Arminian  say  than 
is  said  in  this  passage  from  a  Calvinistic  writer:  "  Let  none  pre- 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH. 


279 


sume  ever  to  suppose  that  God  can  be  wanting  on  his  part, 
or  to  cast  the  blame  of  his  own  negligence  and  impenitence  on 
the  predestination  of  God.  He  will  have  all  to  be  saved,  and 
calls  upon  all  men  to  come  unto  Jesus  that  they  may  have  life ; 
and  it  were  blasphemy  to  suppose  that  he  offers  for  the  accept- 
ance of  his  creatures  a  gift  which  he  had  caiisatively  foreor- 
dained that  they  should  be  unable  to  receive.  He  is  ever  work- 
ing by  his  spirit  for  good— and  for  good  only,  and  strives  with 
every  man  until  he,  by  his  own  obstinate  resistance,  has 
destroyed  within  himself  the  susceptibility  of  renewal  and  done 
despite  to  the  Spirit  of  Grace."  The  same  writer,  amazing  as 
the  fact  seems,  still  clings  to  his  Calvinistic  premises — the  eter- 
nal unconditional  decree  of  whatsoever  comes  to  pass — that 
some  of  the  human  race  are  unconditionally  chosen  in  Christ 
unto  everlasting  glory,  and  the  rest  of  mankind  passed  by  and 
doomed  to  wrath,  for  whom,  according  to  Dr.  Hodge,  Christ  did 
not  assume  "  the  broken  conditions  of  the  old  covenant  of  works 
precisely  as  Adam  left  them,"  as  he  did  for  the  "elect  seed," 
and,  worse  still,  if  possible,  the  guilt  of  Adam's  sin  is  imputed 
to  those  for  whom  Christ  did  not  assume  the  conditions  of  the 
covenant  broken  by  Adam,  and  this  imputed  sin  of  Adam  is 
made  "  the  cause  of  the  loss  of  original  righteousness  and  the 
acquisition  of  original  sin."  If  for  a  sin  committed  by  another, 
and  unconditionally  imputed  to  him  by  a  Sovereign  Will,  a 
human  being  is  unconditionally  passed  by  and  ordained  to 
wrath,  that  human  being  is  not  a  victim  of  fatality,  we  fail  to 
conceive  what  is  meant  by  fatality. 

Calvinistic  "decrees"  and  "predestination,"  of  logical  neces- 
sity, lead  to  the  doctrine  of  fatality.  The  distinction  between 
causative  will  and  permissive  will,  says  Dr.  Forbes,  "  Calvin 
would  not  hear  of."  "  Why  do  we  say  God  permits''  asks  Cal- 
vin, "  but  just  because  he  wills?  " 

"Calvin  was  afraid,"  says  Dr.  Forbes,  "that  if  he  conceded 
any  originating  power  whatever  to  the  creature's  will  the  sover- 


28o         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

eignty  of  God  would  thereby  be  infringed,"  and  justly  adds  that 
"  he  (Calvin)  does  not  see  by  the  repulsive  aspect  he  gives  to  this 
attribute  in  pressing  it  beyond  its  legitimate  sphere,  and  by 
making  the  sovereignty  of  God  override  all  his  other  attributes, 
he  throws  an  obstacle  in  the  way  of  the  cordial  acceptance  of  this 
most  important  and  humbling,  yet  consolatory,  truth." 

Only  within  the  sphere  of  freedom — the  power  to  choose  the 
end  for  which  he  will  live,  and  to  subordinate  ten  thousand  voli- 
tions to  the  realization  of  the  generic  choice,  can  responsibility 
attach  to  man.  This  sphere  of  freedom  is  the  domain  of  moral 
law,  of  virtue,  of  moral  government ;  and  we  may  proceed  to 
notice  how  out  of  man's  nature  as  a  rational  creature  capable 
of  happiness  and  suffering,  and  endowed  with  self-determining 
power,  there  issues  what  is  at  once  the  law  of  his  constitution 
and  the  will  of  his  Maker,  namely, 

II.   The  Moral  Law. 

When  we  assert  that  the  moral  law  is  but  the  law  of  man's 
constitution,  it  is  meant  that  it  is  simply  the  rational  way  of 
acting  for  a  being  endowed  with  man's  powers  and  susceptibili- 
ties, and  existing  for  the  end  for  which  man  is  conceived  to 
exist.  Given,  that  end,  and  man's  constitution,  as  endowed  with 
intelligence,  sensibility,  and  will,  and  reason  affirms  a  law  of 
action  for  man,  and  that  law  of  action  is  the  moral  law. 

It  is  only  in  view  of  an  "  end  "  for  which  man  is  conceived  to 
exist  that  a  law  of  action  can  be  predicated.  Not  only  an  end, 
but  a  highest  end  must  be  conceived  as  conditioning  the  idea  of 
law  for  a  being  endowed  with  knowledge  and  freedom.  As 
endowed  with  sensibility,  man  is  capable  of  enjoyment,  of  hap- 
piness, of  good,  and  of  good  that  may  come  to  him  through 
numerous  sources.  But  his  constitution  reveals  a  supreme 
good,  a  stimmum  bo7ium.  It  is  in  view  of  ends,  as  higher  or  lower, 
which  man  apprehends,  and  from  which  he  can  freely  choose  for 
himself  a  supreme  end  of  his  life  endeavors,  that  issue  moral 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  28 1 

law,  man's  responsibility,  and  his  approval  or  disapproval  of 
self,  in  accordance  with  the  choice  made.  At  this  point  it  is 
that  destiny  is  in  man's  own  hand.  Whatsoever  he  soweth,  that 
shall  he  reap.  If  he  choose  as  an  end  the  gratification  of  the 
flesh,  or  the  acquisition  of  wealth,  or  worldly  fame,  he  chooses 
unworthily,  and  not  only  misses  the  supreme  good,  but  brings 
upon  himself  the  retribution  of  his  own  outraged  moral  nature. 
"  Man's  chief  end  is  to  glorify  God,  and  to  enjoy  him  forever." 
Whether  we  study  man's  faculties  and  susceptibilities,  appeal 
to  his  experience,  or  accept  the  teaching  of  the  Bible,  the  Cate- 
chism is  found  to  harmonize  with  the  profoundest  philosophy  as 
to  man's  well-being.  Only  when  man  seeks  happiness  through 
obedience  to  the  will  of  his  Maker  does  he  find  his  true  end,  the 
highest  good  of  which  he  is  capable. 

Viewed  only  as  proceeding  from  man's  constitution,  or  as 
learned  from  his  experience,  moral  law  is  but  the  rule  by  which 
man  attains  the  highest  good.  "A  law,"  says  Mark  Hopkins, 
"  tells  us  what  to  do,  and  commands  us  to  do  it,  but  becomes 
law  only  as  it  is  enforced  by  a  penalty,  or  by  punishment." 
Unless  a  law  be  "  supposed  to  express  the  will  of  God  with  his 
authority  lying  back  of  it,  it  will  be,  as  men  now  are,  of  small 
force  for  controlling  the  appetites  and  passions." 

The  Creator,  infinitel}^  wise  and  good,  not  only  made  man  for 
the  happiness  that  comes  through  virtue,  but  wills  that  man 
shall  attain  this  end ;  and  thus  the  law  divinely  impressed  upon 
man's  constitution  is  also  the  positively  revealed  will  and  com- 
mand of  the  Creator.  God  says  to  men  through  his  inspired 
word.  Thou  shalt,  and  thou  shalt  not.  Man  is  free  to  obey  and 
to  disobey.  Yet  a  voice  within  him  says,  This  5'ou  ought  to  do, 
that  3'ou  oicght  not  to  do.  So  there  is  within  man's  breast  that 
which  makes  him  "  a  law  unto  himself" — that  something  which 
separates  man  from  the  brute  by  what  one  has  called  "  the 
greatest  difference  in  the  universe  " — that  something  within  us, 
though  no  part  of  us,  which  the  greatest  of  German  philoso- 


282         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

phers  declared  equally  wonderful  with  the  starry  heavens  above 

lis — the  MORAL  LAW. 

III.   Moral  Government. 

No  man  liveth  unto  himself  only.  Every  individual  is  a 
member  of  a  great  social  and  moral  economy.  God's  purpose  in 
the  creation  of  beings  rational  and  sentient,  is  the  diffusion  of 
happiness  through  a  vast  moral  economy.  Every  subject  in  this 
great  economy  is  bound,  not  only  to  choose  his  own  highest 
well-being,  but  with  regard  to  the  purpose  of  God  that  all  shall 
attain  their  end,  and,  first  of  all,  with  respect  to  his  obligations 
to  his  Maker.  Not  only  in  striving  to  realize  the  end  for  which 
he  was  made  is  man  to  glorify  God  and  enjoy  him,  but  he  is 
under  obligation  to  be  a  worker  together  with  God  in  the  pro- 
motion of  the  highest  good  of  the  whole  moral  economy. 
Within  limits  of  their  capacit}^  to  enable  man  to  attain  his  end, 
both  the  family  and  the  state  are  of  divine  appointment — powers 
"  ordained  of  God  "  for  human  well-being. 

God,  by  creation  and  preservation,  is  the  rightful  King  whose 
dominion  rules  over  all.  But  over  man  and  other  subjects  of 
moral  law,  he  rules  by  a  system  of  rewards  and  punishments. 
The  fundamental  law  of  his  kingdom  is,  Thou  shall  love  the 
Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  aiid  thy  neighbor  as  thyself. 
"  Love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law."  And  the  "  love  "  we  are 
required  to  exercise  toward  the  neighbor  in  kind  and  measure  as 
toward  self,  consists  in  choosing  and  seeking  for  the  neighbor  the 
attainment  of  his  end.  The  general  prevalence  of  this  law  of 
God's  kingdom  in  the  hearts  and  lives  of  men  would  result  in 
what  one  has  rightly  called  "  the  highest  earthly  conception  " — 
a  "  vast  Christian  commonwealth  instinct  with  order." 

The  view  we  have  taken  of  free  will  enables  us  to  see  how 
man  can  rationally  yield  himself  to  God  through  the  exercise 
of  that  freedom,  and  the  poet  uttered  a  truth  accordant  with 
philosophy  and  religion' in  saying,  "  Our  wills  are  ours,  to  make 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  283 

them  thine; "  for  only  through  the  will  can  man  give  himself  or 
any  thing  else  to  God.  But  the  power  to  give  ourselves  to  God 
freely,  is  the  power  also  to  withhold  ourselves  from  and  to  rebel 
against  God. 

"  If  God  would  be  a  Father  and  a  Moral  Governor,"  says 
Mark  Hopkins,  "  he  must  have  children  and  subjects  in  his  own 
image,  and  with  the  prerogative  of  choosing  or  rejecting  him  as 
their  supreme  good.  Control  by  force,  or  by  an  impulse  from 
without,  is  the  opposite  of  control  by  love,  and  of  order  from  a 
rational  choice,  and  the  highest  duty  of  man  is  to  give  himself 
in  the  spirit  of  a  child — that  is,  by  faith,  to  God." 

It  is  because  man  has  turned  away  from  God,  and  seeks  hap- 
piness through  the  choice  of  other  than  the  right  end,  that  the 
world  is  full  of  unrest,  sorrow,  and  suffering.    Such  a  choice  is  sin. 

In  the  light  of  the  general  principles  we  have  thus  attempted 
to  make  plain,  it  will  not  be  difficult  to  understand  how 

IV.   God's  Sovereignty  and  Man's  Freedom 

harmonize  in  that  moral  government  which  God  exercises  over 
his  creature  man. 

True  it  is,  indeed,  that  the  profoundest  thinkers  have  been 
perplexed  over  the  problem  we  have  here  pronounced  not  diffi- 
-cult  to  understand.  Calvin  solved  the  problem,  as  Dr.  Forbes 
tells  us,  "  by  denying  there  is  any  to  be  solved  " — "  by  eliminat- 
ing entirely  the  conflicting  element  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
question,  and  merging  man's  will  wholly  in  God's  will.  The 
common  sense  of  mankind  has  been  in  error  in  considering  that 
man's  will  could  originate  any  thing — even  sin.  God  is  the 
originator  of  all,  even  of  siny  Such,  a  professed  Calvinist 
being  judge,  is  the  conclusion  Calvin  deduced  from  his  own 
premises.  The  ceaseless  unrest  of  Westminster  theology  grows 
out  of  the  fact  that  it  accepts  Calvin's  premises  with  a  "  so  as 
thereby  "  the  conclusion  does  not  follow— an  attempt  to  disjoin 
ideas  which  are  by  logical  necessity  inseparable. 


284         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

Calvinistic  necessitarians  charge  the  advocates  of  free-will 
with  a  denial  of  the  scriptural  doctrine  that  salvation  is  of 
grace ;  but  such  a  charge  is  unjust ;  more  still,  if  man  be  not 
free  in  the  sense  and  measure  we  have  supposed,  then  would  it 
be  impossible  for  salvation  to  be  by  grace,  for  grace  is  favor  to 
the  undeserving,  but  if  not  free,  man  is  neither  deserving  nor 
undeserving. 

The  all-wise  Creator  saw  fit  to  bring  into  being  a  vast  moral 
economy.  It  was  his  sovereign  will  to  create  such  intelligences, 
and  to  govern  them  according  to  the  nature  he  gave  them. 
Here  on  the  earth,  as  an  actuality,  we  find  such  a  moral 
economy,  the  subjects  of  which  do,  through  civil  government 
and  in  a  thousand  other  ways,  treat  one  another  as  endowed 
with  freedom  of  will  and  action,  and  therefore  as  responsible. 

Had  not  an  omnipotent  Creator  power  to  create  such  a  being 
as  we  have  supposed  man  to  be?  If  in  the  exercise  of  his 
sovereignty  he  has  created  such  a  being,  wherein  is  his  sover- 
eignty denied  ?  If  when  in  rebellion  and  deserving  only  the 
divine  displeasure  man  is  saved  by  divine  interposition,  how  is 
"grace"  denied  as  being  the  procuring  cause  of  salvation?  It 
is  not  denied. 


CUMBERIvAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  285 


CHAPTER  X. 

REDEMPTION    IN   RELATION   TO  THE   HEATHEN   AND   THOSE 
INCAPABIvE   OF   FAITH. 

"  There  is  a  wideness  in  God's  mercy, 

Like  the  wideness  of  the  sea ; 
There  's  a  kindness  in  his  justice 

Which  is  more  than  liberty ; 
For  the  lo~ve  of  God  is  broader 

Than  the  measure  of  man's  mind; 
And  the  heart  of  the  Eternal 

Is  most  wonderfully  kind." — Faber. 

^TT^HE  subject  of  the  last  preceding  chapter  leads  us,  by  obvi- 
ous  connection,  to  inquire  whether  salvation  is  possible  to 
those  who  live  and  die  without  knowledge  of  Christ's  atoning 
work,  and,  if  it  is  possible,  on  what  conditions.  It  is  matter  for 
regret  that  the  discussion  of  a  question  of  so  much  interest 
must,  by  the  limits  prescribed  for  this  volume,  be  restricted  to  a 
few  pages.  A  brief  summary  of  the  great  doctrines  of  redemp- 
tion will  suitably  bring  the  question  before  us  : 

1.  In  the  exercise  of  freedom  of  will,  which  "is  the  sole 
ground  of  accountability,"  man  brought  sin  into  the  world,  and 
death  by  sin. 

2.  "Jesus  Christ,  by  his  perfect  obedience  and  sacrifice  of 
himself,  became  the  propitiation  for  the  sins  of  the  whole 
world." 

3.  That  the  legal  aspect  of  this  merciful  provision,  which 
sprang  wholly  from  God's  sovereign  grace,  is  comprised  in  the 
fact  that  all  the  benign  ends  of  God's  moral  government  that 
could  have  been  attained  by  the  punishment  of  the  transgressor, 


286  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

can  be  attained  through  the  sufferings  and  death  of  Christ  as 
displaying  God's  disapprobation  of  sin  and  his  supreme  regard 
for  holiness  and  for  the  happiness  of  his  creatures. 

4.  Atonement  takes  away  no  one's  sins  except  in  the  sense, 
(i)  that  God  can  justly  and  does  forgive  the  sins  of  those  who 
repent  of  sin,  and  choose  obedience,  and  (2)  that  it  provides  the 
gracious  influences  whereby  the  sinner  may  experience  moral 
and  spiritual  regeneration,  if  he  submit  himself  to  those  influ- 
ences. Pardon,  justification,  salvation,  or  the  blessings  which 
come  to  man  through  Christ,  by  whatever  word  expressed,  must 
mean,  in  a  general  sense,  (i)  deliverance  from  the  penal  conse- 
quences of  sin,  By  pardon,  made  morally  possible  through 
atonement,  and  (2)  restoration  to  holiness  and,  thereby,  to  bless- 
edness. 

5.  Christ's  atoning  work  is  for  humanity,  lifting  the  race  into 
a  new  and  gracious  probation,  and,  as  the  Bible  certainly 
teaches,  thus  secures  to  every  human  being  the  possibibility  of 
attaining  that  spiritual  blessedness  in  which  consists  the 
supreme  good  for  which  man  was  made. 

In  the  application  of  these  doctrines  to  the  problem  of  actual 
salvation,  we  distinguish  three  classes : 

{a)  Those  who,  by  early  death  or  by  natural  impotence  of 
mental  faculties,  in  this  life  know  nothing  of  Christ.  Of  this 
class  Cumberland  Presbyterians  say,  "All  infants  dying  in 
infancy,  and  all  persons. who  have  never  had  the  faculty  of 
reason,  are  regenerated  and.  saved." 

Knapp  is  certainly  incorrect  when  he  declares  that  "  none 
have  really  ever  doubted  the  salvation  of  those  dying  in  infan- 
cy;  "  for  the  damnation  of  some  of  this  class  is  an  unavoidable 
inference  of  the  doctrine  of  unconditional  election  and  reproba- 
tion—of what  a  Presbyterian  judicature  lately  stigmatized  as 
"  M<?  horrible  doctrine  of  preterition"  While  our  Confession 
teaches  that  all  dying  in  infancy  are  "  regenerated  and  saved," 
the  Westminster  doctrine,  consistently  with  its  dogma  of  uncon- 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  287 

ditional   decrees,  is  that  "  elect  infants "  dying  in  infancy  are 
saved. 

{b)  Those  to  whom  the  gospel  is  offered. 

{c)  That  large  class — as  yet  by  far  the  larger  part  of  our  com- 
mon humanity — who  have  lived  to  years  of  moral  accountabil- 
ity, and  passed  from  this  probationary  stage,  without  knowledge 
that  Christ  tasted  death  for  them. 

A  consistent  Calvinist  holds,  as  Dr.  Briggs  admits,  that  this 
life  is  not  in  any  proper  sense  a  state  of  probation,  since, 
according  to  Calvinistic  doctrine,  by  eternal  decree  of  election 
or  preterition  every  man's  destiny  is  determined  before  he  is 
born.  Cumberland  Presbyterian  doctrine  makes  the  blessings 
of  the  gospel  available  to  all  humanity — ^wide  as  the  curse  is  the 
offer  of  the  remedy. 

Whatever  may  be  the  extent  of  the  knowledge  of  duty  to 
which  man  may  attain  without  the  light  of  revelation,  the 
Scriptures  clearly  teach  that  only  for  the  right  use  of  what  he 
hath  shall  man  give  account.  Peter  never  opened  his  mouth  to 
more  reasonable  utterance  than  when,  in  audience  of  those 
present  "  to  hear  all  things  commanded  of  the  Lord,"  he  said 
(Acts  X.  35)  :  "  Of  a  truth  I  perceive  that  God  is  not  a  respecter 
of  persons ;  but  in  every  nation  he  that  fears  him,  and  works 
righteousness,  is  accepted  of  him." 

So  Paul  declares,  that  there  is  no  respect  of  persons  with 
God,"  asserting — 

"  For  whenever  the  Gentiles  who  have  not  the  law 
Do  by  nature  the  things  of  the  law. 
These,  having  not  the  law,  are  a  law  unto  themselves ; 
Who  show  the  work  of  the  law  written  in  their  hearts, 
Their  conscience  also  bearing  witness. 
And  their  thoughts  meanwhile  accusing  or  excusing  one 
another." 
And  so,  speaking   of  the  light  of  nature  as   the  source  of  a 
knowledge  of  God  and  of  duty,  he  declares :  "  For,  from  the 


288         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

creation  of  the  world,  his  invisible  things  are  clearly  seen,  being 
perceived  by  the  things  that  are  made,  even  his  eternal  power 
and  Godhead;  so  that  they  are  without  excuse."  And  so,  as 
justifying  God's  displeasure  at  the  wickedness  of  heathendom, 
Paul  says  of  such  sinners,  "  Who,  knowing  the  judg^inetit  of  God, 
that  they  who  do  such  things  are  worthy  of  death,  not  only  do 
them,  but  have  pleasure  in  those  who  do  them." 

There  can  be  no  question  as  to  the  fact  that  the  heathen  world 
lieth  in  abominable  idolatries  and  other  wickedness — and  that 
it  is  a  just  reproach  to  Christianity  that  it  has  not  caused  all  the 
world  to  hear  the  glad  tidings  designed  for  all  ears — yet  it  is 
true  that  even  in  heathen  lands  there  have  been  illustrious 
examples  of  lives  noble  and  virtuous,  and  of  moral  and  religious 
teaching  very  like  to  portions  of  the  inspired  word.  St.  Clem- 
ent says :  "  I^et  us  look  steadfastly  upon  the  blood  of  Christ, 
and  see  how  precious  his  blood  is  in  the  sight  of  God,  because, 
being  poured  out  in  behalf  of  our  salvation,  it  has  procured  for 
the  whole  world  the  gift  of  repentance."  In  like  manner  is 
Christ  declared  "  the  true  Light  which  lighteth  ever)-  man  that 
Cometh  into  the  world."  The  prophet  Haggai  announced  the 
coming  Messiah  as  "  the  Desire  of  all  natioiisy  That  the  early 
teachers  of  Christianity  understood  that  present  good  and  the 
possibility  of  salvation  and  eternal  blessedness  came  through 
Christ  to  the  whole  human  race,  "  even  as  from  Adam  maledic- 
tion came  upon  all,"  the  following  passage  from  Irenaeus  is 
proof:  "  For  it  was  not  merely  for  those  who  believed  on  him  in 
the  time  of  Tiberius  Caesar  that  Christ  came,  nor  did  the  Father 
exercise  his  providence  only  for  men  who  are  now  alive,  but  for 
all  men,  who  from  the  beginning,  according  to  their  capacity, 
have  in  their  generation  feared  and  loved  God,  and  practiced 
justice  and  piety  toward  their  neighbors,  and  have  earnestly 
desired  to  see  Christ  and  to  hear  his  voice." 

Whether  the  good  exhibited  in  the  lives  of  men  not  under  the 
influence  of  the  published  gospel  is  due  simply  to  the  natural 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  289 

powers  of  the  human  soul,  as  the  vestiges  of  the  moral  likeness 
broken  by  the  fall,  or  to  be  ascribed  to  gracious  influences  com- 
ing upon  man  through  Christ's  assumption  of  humanity  in  his 
incarnation  is  an  old  controversy  upon  the  consideration  of 
which  we  need  not  enter,  it  being  sufficient  for  our  purpose  to 
say  that  the  latter  view  is  the  one  sanctioned  by  such  passages 
as  the  following : 

"  God  sent  not  his  Son  into  the  world  to  condemn  the  world, 
but  that  the  world  through  him  might  be  saved."  Certainly  it 
is  possible  for  the  world  to  be  saved. 

"  I  exhort,  therefore,  first  of  all,  that  supplications,  prayers, 
intercessions,  and  giving  of  thanks,  be  made  for  all  men — for 
kings  and  all  that  are  in  authority,  that  we  may  lead  a  quiet  and 
peaceable  life  in  all  godliness  and  decorum ;  for  this  is  good  and 
acceptable  in  the  sight  of  our  Savior  God,  who  desires  that  all 
should  be  saved  and  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth."  It 
must  mean  that  salvation  is  possible  to  all,  and  that  all  are  open 
to  the  influences  of  prayer. 

"As  the  Eternal  Son  became  our  Redeemer,  Mediator,  and 
effectual  Intercessor,  so,"  says  a  most  thoughtful  writer,  "  to 
complete  the  work  which  he  began,  to  make  effectual  for  our 
salvation  his  sacrifice,  mediation,  and  intercession,  the  Holy 
Ghost  was  sent  to  dwell  in  the  hearts  of  men ;  to  be  the  agent 
of  reunion  between  God  and  man  ;  to  be  the  source  and  begin- 
ning of  that  new  life,  from  which  comes  the  capacity  of  holiness, 
the  power  to  know  and  to  love  God,  and  to  obey  and  love  his  com- 
mands.^^ 

In  every  human  life  there  is  that  experienced  conflict  between 
good  and  evil,  between  the  flesh  and  the  Spirit,  which  led  a 
heathen  philosopher  to  declare  that  he  was  possessed  of  two 
souls  arrayed  against  each  other.  It  is  in  the  power  of  man, 
raised  to  a  new  probation  in  Christ,  to  follow  the  promptings  of 
the  Spirit ;  and  in  his  power  to  resist  the  Spirit,  to  live  in  the 
*'  flesh ;  "  and  which  he  chooses  determines  his  destiny.  "  The 
19 


290         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

gospel  tells  us  whence  that  goodness  proceeds,"  says  the  writer 
above  quoted,  "  which  we  find  everywhere  to  co-exist  with  the 
evil  in  the  heart  of  man,"  adding  in  another  connection,  "  the 
scriptural  testimony  to  this  great  fact  of  the  indwelling  of  the 
Spirit  in  the  hearts  of  all  men  in  all  ages,  is  emphatic  and  con- 
clusive." St.  Paul  afl&rms  that  "  the  manifestation  of  the  Spirit 
is  given  to  every  man  to  profit  withal." 

Of  high  ideals  of  virtue  in  the  lives  and  the  teachings  of  men 
who  had  not  the  gospel,  many  illustrations  could  be  given,  but 
the  following  must  suffice : 

On  the  examination  of  conscience  Seneca  gives  this  admirable 
advice :  "  We  should  every  day  call  our  conscience  to  account. 
Thus  did  Sextius.  When  his  daily  work  was  done  he  questioned 
his  soul,  Of  what  defect  hast  thou  cured  thyself  to-day  ?  What 
passion  hast  thou  combated?  In  what  hast  thou  become  better? 
What  more  beautiful  than  this  habit  of  going  thus  over  the 
whole  day  ?  ....  I  do  the  same,  and,  being  thus  my  own  judge, 
I  call  myself  thus  before  my  own  tribunal.  When  the  light  has 
been  carried  from  my  room,  I  begin  an  inquest  of  the  whole 
day ;  I  examine  all  my  actions  and  words.  And  why  should  I 
hesitate  to  look  at  any  of  my  faults  when  I  can  say  to  myself: 
Take  care  not  to  do  so  again — for  to-day  I  forgive  thee?" 

How  many  professed  Christians  there  are — how  many  minis- 
ters, perchance — who  could  learn  from  Seneca,  and  profit  by  his 
example  !  Yet  Seneca  lived  in  a  time  of  abounding  wickedness 
and  fell  a  victim  to  the  malice  of  Nero  (A.D.  65),  observing, 
when  the  sentence  came,  "  I  might  have  long  expected  such  a 
mandate  from  a  man  who  had  murdered  his  own  mother  and 
assassinated  all  his  friends." 

Equally  remarkable,  and  of  a  more  religious  character,  are 
these  words  of  Epictetus,  a  Greek  moralist  of  whom  a  contem- 
porary said,  "  I  thank  the  gods  for  Epictetus,  from  whose  writ- 
ings I  can  collect  wherewith  to  conduct  life  with  honor  to 
myself  and  advantage  to  my  country:  "    "  If  we  had  an  under- 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  29 1 

Standing,  ought  we  not,"  says  Epictetus,  "  both  in  public  and  in 
private,  incessantly  to  sing  and  praise  the  Deity,  and  rehearse 
his  benefits  ?  Ought  we  not,  whether  we  dig,  or  plow,  or  eat,  to 
sing  this  hymn  to  God  ?  Great  is  God  who  has  supplied  us  with 
these  instruments  to  till  the  ground;  great  is  God,  who  has 
given  us  hands  and  organs  of  digestion ;  who  has  given  us  to 
grow  insensibly,  and  to  breathe  in  sleep.  These  things  we  ought 
forever  to  celebrate,  and  to  make  it  the  theme  of  the  greatest 
and  divinest  hymn,  that  he  has  given  us  the  power  to  appreciate 
these  gifts,  and  to  use  them  well.  Were  I  a  nightingale,  I  would 
act  the  part  of  a  nightingale ;  were  I  a  swan,  the  part  of  a  swan. 
But  since  I  am  a  reasonable  creature,  it  is  77iy  duty  to  praise  God. 
This  is  my  business,  ....  and  I  call  on  you  to  join  in  the  same 
song." 

Not  a  few  Christian  scholars  have  believed  some  of  the  great 
moralists  of  the  heathen  world  to  have  been  inspired.  Of  Soc- 
rates, Plato,  and  Sakyo  Mouni,  Farrar  says  (in  his  Early  Days 
of  Christianity),  "  These,  too,  were  enabled  to  shed  some  light 
on  the  problems  of  sin  and  sorrow,  because  they  had  kindled 
their  torches  at  the  Sun  of  Righteousness,"  and  adds  that,  "  in 
the  deliverance  of  the  one  great  revelation,  even  the  heathen 
have  borne  their  share."  The  "Apologists  of  the  second  cent- 
ury, and  the  philosophic  Greek  Christians  of  the  third,  never 
hesitated,"  he  further  alleges,  "  to  recognize  the  truth  that  the 
influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit  are  as  the  wind  which  bloweth 
where  it  listeth,  and  that  the  poets  and  the  philosophers  of  the 
heathen  are  often  the  conscious  and  the  unconscious  exponents 
of  his  inward  voice."  But  it  is  not  to  be  overlooked  that  Chris- 
tianity appeared  at  a  time  when  the  world's  moral  sky  was  one 
of  almost  unbroken  gloom,  a  star  like  Seneca  appearing  only 
here  and  there,  and  that  Stoicism,  the  best  philosophy  heathen- 
dom had  produced,  "  amid  the  terrors  and  temptations  of  that 
awful  epoch  utterly  failed  to  provide  a  remedy  against  the 
universal  degradation." 


292  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

Account  for  the  fact  as  we  may,  it  is  of  vast  significance  in 
this  connection,  that  coextensive  with  man's  conscious  sense  of 
moral  unworthiness,  which  seems  world-wide,  there  is  a  belief 
that  the  favor  of  God  is  dependent  on  sacrifice.  S3'mington,  in 
his  work  on  Atonement,  says  that  "  every  such  sacrifice  may  be 
regarded  as  pointing  directly  to  the  one  perfect  sacrifice  of  the 
Son  of  God."  Further,  as  the  same  able  writer  adds,  "  every 
part  of  the  Gentile  world  is  familiar  with  the  idea  of  substitu- 
tion, and  the  very  terms  which  this  principle  suggests  the  use 
of,  are  found  in  almost  every  language  on  earth." 

These  views  of  the  relation  of  Christ's  atoning  work,  and  of 
the  accompanying  influences  of  the  Spirit,  to  humanity  as  a 
whole,  have  direct  bearing  on  the  obligation  and  the  encourage- 
ment of  those  who  now  have  the  gospel  to  endeavor  to  give  it 
to  the  yet  less  favored  portion  of  the  race,  which,  through  the 
quickening  influence  of  the  Spirit,  is  endued  with  power  to 
believe  on  him  of  whom  it  waits  to  hear,  who  tasted  death  for 
every  man.  Through  this  one  sense  of  need,  this  one  atoning 
sacrifice  for  all,  this  one  quickening  Spirit  striving  with  all,  all 
willing  subjects  receive  power  to  become  sons  of  God  and  heirs 
of  everlasting  blessedness. 

One  of  the  ablest  Christian  thinkers  and  writers  of  the 
century  declares  that  modern  skepticism  is  a  natural  result  of 
the  narrowness  of  the  popular  theology.  We  come  to  the  close 
of  this  cursory  view  of  some  of  the  leading  doctrines  of  the 
gospel  with  a  like  belief;  and  likewise  with  a  profound  convic- 
tion of  the  substantial  correctness,  and,  therefore,  of  the 
immense  value  of  the  rational  statement  of  scriptural  doctrine, 
contained  in  the  plain  and  brief  Confession  of  Faith  of  the 
Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church.  To  so  interpret  Christianity 
as  to  make  it  discordant  with  reason,  with  man's  consciousness, 
or  with  the  obvious  facts  of  human  experience  ;  to  make  the 
issue  of  the  gospel  depend  on  an  unconditional  decree  of  God 
which,  out  of  the  same  humanity,  elects  some  to  salvation  and 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  293 

passes  by  and  ordains  others  to  wrath ;  to  make  the  remission 
of  sins  dependent  on  the  prayers  and  intercessions  of  priest  or 
pope,  or  the  blessings  of  salvation  dependent  on  any  baptism  or 
other  outward  form,  is  to  offer  a  Christianity  from  which  the 
growing  intelligence  of  the  times  will  revolt.  Never  before  did 
more  solemn  obligation  rest  on  the  ministry  and  all  other  relig- 
ious teachers,  to  speak  the  things  which  become  sound  doc- 
trine, even  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints,  for 
thereon  depend  the  power  and  destiny  of  the  Church  of  the 
living  God,  itself  THE  pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth. 


294         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 


CHAPTER  XL 

SIN — ATONEMENT — PARDON — RESTORATION. 

"  27.  Jesus  Christ,  the  only  begotten  Son  of  God,  was  verily  appointed 
■before  the  foundation  of  the  world  to  be  the  Mediator  between  God  and 
man,  the  Prophet,  Priest,  and  King,  the  heir  of  all  things,  the  propitia- 
tion for  the  sins  of  all  mankind,  the  Head  of  his  Church,  the  Judge  of 
the  world,  and  the  Savior  of  all  true  believers. 

"  28.  The  Son  of  t>od,  the  second  person  in  the  Trinity,  did,  when  the 
fullness  of  time  was  come,  take  upon  himself  man's  nature,  yet  without 
sin,  being  very  -God  and  very  man,  yet  one  Christ,  the  only  Mediator 
between  God  and  man. 

"  31.  Jesus  Christ,  by  his  perfect  obedience  and  sacrifice  of  himself, 
which  he,  through  the  Eternal  Spirit,  once  offered  unto  God,  became  the 
propitiation  for  the  sins  of  the  zuhole  world,  so  God  can  be  just  in  justi- 
fying all  who  believe  in  Jesus, 

"  33-  Jesus  Christ  tasted  death  for  every  vian,  and  now  makes  interces- 
sion for  transgressors,  by  virtue  of  which  the  Holy  Spirit  is  given  to 
convince  of  sin  and  enable  man  to  believe  and  obey,  governing  the  hearts 
of  believers  by  his  word  and  Spirit,  overcoming  all  their  enemies  by  his 
almighty  power  and  wisdom,  in  such  manner  and  ways  as  are  most  con- 
sonant to  his  wonderful  and  unsearchable  dispensation." — Confession  of 
Faith. 

"God,  out  of  his  mere  good  pleasure,  did  provide  salvation  for  all 
mankind." — Catechism,  Ans.  to  Qiies.  22. 

"  And  he  is  a  propitiation  for  our  sins  ;  and  not  for  ours  only,  but  also 
for  the  whole  world." — i  John  ii.  2. 

"  For  God  so  loved  the  world,  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that 
whosoever  believeth  on  him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting 
life." — John  iii.  16. 

"  When  the  fullness  of  the  time  was  come,  God  sent  forth  his  Son,  .... 
to  redeem  them  that  were  under  the  law." — Gal.  iv.  4,  5. 

^npHE  section  of  the  Confession  on  Christ  the  Mediator  is 

clear,  full,  and,  as  it  seems   to  us,  thoroughly   scriptural. 

Any  thing  like  a  complete  development  of  its  teachings  would 

far  transcend  the  limits  that  must  be  observed  in  this  chapter. 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  295 

Only  a  few  leading  points  can  be  brought  under  consideration, 
and  these  will  be  more  clearly  seen  in  their  logical  relations  if 
we  make  brief  reference  to  truths  set  forth  in  the  last  chapter. 

We  have  seen  that  man,  endowed  with  intelligence,  sensi- 
bility, and  will,  is  by  his  constitution  a  subject  of  moral  law. 
Capable  of  good  as  a  sentient  creature,  and  possessed  of  con- 
scious self-determining  power,  with  ability  to  see  the  results  of 
his  behavior  in  their  relation  to  his  own  and  other's  well-being, 
man  is  a  person,  a  self-conscious  rational  ego,  intrusted  with, 
and  responsible  for,  the  destiny  of  the  spiritual  selfhood,  which 
has  capacity  for  sharing  the  bliss  of  heaven,  and  of  suiFering  the 
torments  of  the  lost.  Moreover,  the  law  which  issues  from  his 
moral  nature  his  Creator  proclaims  b}"  revelation.  Thou  shall 
love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  thy  neighbor  as  thy- 
self, and  thus  man  finds  himself  a  subject  of  a  moral  govern- 
ment whose  Head  has  a  right  to  command  the  homage  and 
obedience  of  all  creatures,  and  will,  as  wise  and  good,  reward 
the  obedient  and  punish  the  disobedient. 

Taught  to  believe  that  man  was  made  in  the  "  image  of  God," 
we  find  his  actual  state  one  of  rebellion  against  his  God. 
Instead  of  loving,  he  hates,  defrauds,  kills  his  neighbor.  In- 
stead of  realizing  his  end,  to  glorify  and  enjoy  God,  man  has 
altogether  turned  aside,  and  has  utterly  corrupted  his  way 
through  willful  and  continued  rebellion  against  the  law  of  his 
own  moral  constitution  and  the  proclaimed  will  of  his  Maker. 
Sin  reigns  unto  universal  moral  corruption  and  condemnation. 

On  the  fact  of  si7i,  man's  guilt  and  ruin,  is  conditioned  the 
remedial  system  called  the  "gospel."  God  loved  the  world, 
and,  "  out  of  his  mere  good  pleasure,"  of  his  infinite  compas- 
sion, let  us  say — "  did  provide  salvation  for  all  mankind."  This 
is  the  great  event  of  time!  The  wonderful  economy  which 
prepared  the  way  for  the  coming  of  the  Redeemer  looked  for- 
ward to  Calvary,  and  all  subsequent  time  looks  back  to  Calvary, 
for  there  was  "  lifted   up "  the  God-man  who   is  drawing  the 


296         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

world  unto  himself.  Though  it  may  seem  folly  to  the  philoso- 
pher and  still  "  scandal  to  the  Jew,"  yet  more  and  more  is  the 
world  coming  to  receive  this  salvation  that  is  through  atone- 
ment, and  to  look  upon  it  as  the  one  event  prophetic  and  pro- 
ductive of  a  grand  issue,  a  divinely  appointed  issue,  to  which 
the  moral  creation  moves. 

The  Scriptures  teach,  not  only  that  redemption  comes  to  man 
through  atonement,  but  that  without  atonement  there  could  be 
no  redemption ;  and  also  that  the  death  of  Christ  was  for  some 
reason,  essential  to  atonement.  "  Christ  died  for  the  ungodly." 
Speaking  of  his  death,  Christ  said,  "  I  lay  it  (my  life)  down  of 
myself."  "  Who  his  own  self  bore  our  sins  in  his  own  body  on 
the  tree."  "  Christ  also  hath  once  suffered  for  sins,  the  just  for 
the  unjust,  that  he  might  bring  us  to  God."  "  Redeemed  .... 
with  the  precious  blood  of  Christ,  as  of  a  lamb  without  blemish 
and  without  spot." 

When  it  is  asserted  that  on  moral  grounds  a  thing  is  necessary ^ 
it  must  be  meant  that  it  is  necessar>^  in  view  of  some  end. 
God's  purpose  to  redeem  man  from  sin  and  its  consequences,  as 
an  end  proposed,  rendered  an  atonement  necessary.  In  other 
language,  divine  justice,  in  view  of  the  ends  of  the  divine 
government,  could  redeem  man  only  on  condition  of  the  substi- 
tution of  something  in  the  place  of  the  death  of  the  sinner  that 
would  equally  well  secure  the  ends  of  the  divine  government. 
The  necessity,  nature,  and  efficiency  of  the  atonement  can  be 
understood  only  as  viewed  through  man's  moral  condition  as  a 
transgressor  of  law,  and  as  dead  in  sin. 

We  may  be  sure  that  the  well-being  of  God's  rational 
creatures  requires  the  punishment  of  sin,  else  sin  would  not  be 
punished.  "  Punishment,"  says  Mark  Hopkins,  "  is  the  inflic- 
tion of  a  previously  declared  penalty  by  the  will  of  the  lawgiver 
for  the  sake  of  sustaining  the  authority  of  the  law."  "  Obvi- 
ously, the  penalty  must  express,  and  that  only  can,"  says 
Hopkins,  "  the  estimate  by  the  lawgiver  of  his  own  rights,  and 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  297 

of  the  rights  of  others  that  are  in  question,  and  also  his  benevo- 
le7it  desire  to  present  the  highest  moral  motives  the  case  will  admit 
to  prevetit  the  infraction  of  law.''  Right  views  in  this  connection 
are  of  the  utmost  importance,  not  only  as  to  right  theory  of 
atonement,  but  in  the  matter  of  the  soul's  acquiescence  in  the 
wisdom  and  love  of  the  God  whose  government  over  us  appoints 
that  the  wages  of  sin  is  death.  "  The  proper  ground  of  punish- 
ment under  any  government  is  not  the  violation  of  obligation — 
that  is,  guilt  as  such,"  continues  the  same  author,  "  but  only  the 
violation  of  obligation,  as  that  violates  rights  ....  In  the 
divine  government.  .  .  .  punishment  is  not  in  view  of  the  guilt 
as  such,  but  as  it  is  guilt  that  violates  the  rights  of  others.  .  .  . 
and  hence,  even  though  guilt  may  have  been  incurred,  if  the 
rights  of  all  be  perfectly  preserved  and  secure,  punishment  may 
be  righteously  omitted." 

In  the  light  of  these  fundamental  principles  we  may  present  a 
plain  illustration  of  man's  condition,  of  what  an  atonement  does 
for  him,  and  how  it  does  it :  The  subject  of  a  good  king  has 
committed  a  crime  for  which  he  has  been  sentenced  to  die,  and, 
by  persistent  rebellion  against  righteous  authority,  has  con- 
tracted such  proneness  to  evil  as  makes  it  morally  certain  that 
were  sentence  not  executed  he  would  remain  a  wicked,  unhappy 
rebel.  Such  is  man's  Condition.  He  is  under  condemnation, 
and  moral  depravity  fills  him  witli  enmity  to  the  law  of  right- 
eousness, to  which  his  carnal  mind  is  not  subject  and  can  not 
be.  The  subject  of  the  king  needs  (i)  pardon  and  (2)  restora- 
tion to  right  voluntary  attitude  to  his  king  and  to  righteous 
rule.  And  such  are  the  needs  of  the  sinner  in  view  of  his 
relation  to  God  and  God's  law.  Pardon,  or  the  removal  of  the 
sentence,  and  restoration  to  holiness  the  sinner  must  have  in 
order  to  salvation.  The  wise  king  will  say  that  as  he  loves  his 
subjects  he  must  punish  rebellion  in  order  to  preserve  obedi- 
ence, harmony,  and  happiness.  If  it  is  not  possible  to  substi- 
tute in  the  place  of  the  death  of  the  offender  some  expedient 


298         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

that  will  equally  well  secure  the  ends  of  righteous  rule,  the 
transgressor  must  (by  moral  necessity)  suffer  the  penalty. 

If  we  are  to  regard  atonement  as  a  great  verity  in  God's 
dealing  with  the  human  race,  we  certainly  find  in  it  the  two 
elements  of  a  moral  condition  rendering  pardon  safe,  and  such 
a  reinforcement  of  the  spiritual  energies  of  the  soul  of  man  as 
puts  pardon  and  renewal  within  his  power  through  submission 
to  God  and  the  use  of  the  gracious  means  supplied.  What 
human  governments  may  not  be  able  to  do,  the  wisdom  and 
love  of  God  fully  accomplished  in  providing  a  ransom  for  those 
under  just  sentence  of  condemnation.  Nay,  more,  we  may 
suppose  that  the  sufferings  and  death  of  Christ  will  do  more  to 
promote  holiness  and  happiness  throughout  Jehovah's  vast 
moral  empire — for  we  can  not  affirm  that  the  knowledge  and 
influence  of  Christ's  work  are  limited  to  mankind — than  the 
everlasting  punishment  of  the  millions  of  the  redeemed  would 
have  done.  The  "advent"  which  brings  to  earth  peace  and 
good  will,  and  is  glad  tidings  of  great  joy,  fills  heaven,  we  may 
suppose,  with  a  joy  otherwise  unknown. 

The  view  of  the  atonement  thus  briefly  outlined  is,  we 
believe,  the  generally  accepted  one  among  Cumberland  Presby- 
terians. It  is  at  once  rational  and  scriptural.  It  honors  God, 
harmonizes  with  man's  nature  and  spiritual  needs,  and  so 
justifies  itself  to  his  understanding  as  to  leave  without  excuse 
its  willful  rejectors.  The  very  ideas  herein  expressed,  as  to  the 
nature  of  the  atonement,  were  the  substance  of  that  wonderful 
system  of  sacrifices  antedating  and  typical  of  the  great  ofi'ering 
to  be  made  in  the  fullness  of  time,  and  with  efficacy  in  itself  to 
justify  man's  pardon  and  procure  his  restoration  to  holiness. 
On  this  point  the  following  words  are  excellent :  "  The  service 
of  the  temple,  with  its  incessant  lessons  of  sin  and  redemption, 
foreshadowed  the  forgiveness  of  guilt  through  a  Savior  to  come. 
The  need  and  assurance  of  God's  forgiving  mercj'^  were  written 
in  the  propitiatory  sacrifices   from  the  beginning.     When  we 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH. 


299 


read  in  Leviticus  or  in  Numbers  and  Deuteronomy,  the  arrange- 
ment of  types  and  typical  services  foreshadowing  the  great 
redemption  for  mankind,  and  note  the  part  which  each  indi- 
vidual Hebrew  had  to  perform  with  them — priest,  ruler,  and  all 
the  common  congregation  alike  required  to  lay  their  hand  on 
the  head  of  the  sin-offering,  confessing  their  guilt,  ...  it  is  as 
if  we  heard  the  sweet  hymn  of  Watts  rising  on  the  air  of  the 
desert : 

'  My  faith  would  lay  her  hand 

On  that  dear  head  of  Thine, 
While  like  a  penitent  I  stand, 
And  there  confess  my  sin.' 

"  They  brought  their  own  offerings,  and  slew  the  victims  with 
their  own  hands,  acknowledging  their  guilt,  and  casting  them- 
selves on  God's  forgiving  mercy." 

As  the  sin  and  the  trespass  offerings  were  for  the  expiation  of 
the  sins  of  those  offering  them,  so,  "  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ, 
his  Son,"  meritoriously  and  in  fact,  "  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin," 
being  in  itself,  as  synonymous  with  his  sufferings  and  death,  a 
consideration  on  account  of  which  God  can  be  just  in  justi- 
fying, or  treating  as  free  from  guilt,  every  soul  that  accepts 
Christ  and  walks  in  newness  of  life  through  him. 

As  evidence  of  the  harmony  of  these  views  with  the  current 
doctrinal  views  of  the  Church,  the  following  passage  from  Rev. 
J.  M.  Hubbert's  tract,  entitled.  The  Atonement,  is  cited  with 
much  satisfaction :  "  Sin  deserves  punishment,  and  God  could 
not  let  it  go  unpunished,  without  appearing  to  be  unrighteous, 
or  unjust.  And  yet  he  was  graciously  inclined  to  spare  the 
sinner.  Here  was  the  problem,  therefore,  how  to  pardon  the 
transgressor,  and  at  the  same  time  show  the  divine  justice. 
Through  the  death  of  Jesus  both  objects  are  accomplished,  God 
manifesting  his  justice  while  justifying  him  that  believes  in 
Jesus.  God's  righteousness  is  thus  shown  to  be  sin-condemning 
and  at  the  same  time  sin-forgiving." 


300         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

Dr.  T.  C.  Blake  thus  sums  up  his  views  of  "  the  necessity  of  the 
atonement :  "  (a)  to  show  God's  abhorrence  of  sin  ;  (d)  to  exhibit 
God's  regard  for  the  moral  law ;  (c)  necessary— adsohitety  neces- 
sary to  man's  salvation ;  (d)  from  the  fact  that  atonement  has 
actually  been  made.  But  these  leave  untouched  the  funda- 
mental question  as  to  why  it  was  necessary  for  God  to  show 
abhorrence  of  sin  and  regard  for  moral  law.  It  must  be  a  ques- 
tion as  to  an  end  or  to  ends,  which  finds  a  rational  solution  in 
the  idea  that  the  end  of  God's  government,  namely,  the  highest 
well-being  of  all  his  rational  creatures  could  be  conserved  only 
through  atonement,  if  the  sinning  were  to  be  redeemed.  Cer- 
tainly God  abhors  sin  and  regards  moral  law,  because  the 
former  destroys  and  the  latter  promotes  the  happiness  of  his 
rational  universe. 

Rev.  James  Craik,  D.D.,  in  his  admirable  work  entitled,  The 
Divine  Life,  presents  a  scheme  of  the  way  of  salvation  through 
atonement,  which  we  thus  briefly  state :  "  (i)  The  entire  race  of 
man  is  by  nature  fallen,  degenerate,  dead.  \-2)  The  universality 
of  redemption — '  The  Lamb  of  God  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the 
world.'  (3)  Christ  hath  sent  the  Holy  Spirit  to  be  the  Teacher, 
Monitor,  and  Guide  of  the  souls  for  which  he  died,  and  to  dwell 
in  the  hearts  of  men,  the  principle  of  a  new  and  divine  life — 
the  bond  of  re-union  between  God  and  man.  (4)  This  redemp- 
tion from  death,  and  this  consequent  gift  of  life,  are  as  extensive 
and  as  universal  as  the  previous  condemnation  which  had  come 
into  the  world  by  sin,  (5)  The  divine  life  thus  given  to  every 
man  is  a  germ  which  does  not  necessarily  destroy  and  take  the 
place  of  the  carnal  nature,  but  co-exists  with  it,  and  enters  into 
conflict  with  all  that  is  evil  and  depraved  in  the  natural  life, 
and,  if  properly  nurtured,  will  ultimately  overcome  all  the  evil, 
and  substitute  for  that  evil  purity,  goodness,  and  every  divine 
affection." 

There  has  been  recently  on  the  part  of  some  of  our  theo- 
logical teachers  and  writers  a  disposition  to  discard  the  idea  that 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  30 1 

the  sufferings  and  death  of  Christ  were  in  any  sense  needful  to 
remove  legal  obstructions  from  the  way  of  man's  pardon — that 
the  atonement  did  not  on  any  account  render  more  safe  the  dis- 
play of  divine  mercy  to  sinners,  but  that  its  aim,  as  an  illustrious 
example  of  love  and  self-sacrifice,  is  solely  to  move  the  heart  of 
man  to  penitence,  love,  and  obedience.  The  theory  looks  to  the 
life  and  the  death  of  Christ,  to  find  soul-inspiring  example,  and 
not  to  his  agony  and  the  offering  of  himself  as  an  expiation  or 
atoning  sacrifice.  Such  a  view  is  chargeable,  in  our  judgment, 
with  greatly  detracting  from  the  glory  and  significance  of  the 
atonement,  and  it  affords  no  adequate  explanation  of  the 
"  mysterious  agony  of  dread  and  terror  which  befell  the  Savior 
in  the  olive  garden  of  Gethsemane,"  when  he  certainly  bowed 
beneath  a  pressure  greater  than  ordinary  mortal  anguish  under 
outward  circumstances  like  those  surrounding  the  Savior.  Cer- 
tainly the  Scriptures  favor  the  idea  that  in  the  Temptation,  the 
Transfiguration,  the  sorrow  in  Gethsemane,  and  in  Calvary's 
agony  and  darkness  we  are  taught  that  the  Mighty  Deliverer 
was  "  verily  drinking  our  cup  of  sorrow,  and  sweating  drops  of 
blood  in  the  vicarious  endurance  of  our  load  of  sin,  that  it  was 
the  weight  of  the  sins  of  the  world  under  which  he  was  stag- 
gering which  made  him  breathe  out,  in  the  exhaustion  of  his 
agony,  '  If  it  be  possible,  let  this  cup  pass  from  me.'  " 

A  general  atonement,  or  that  Christ's  atoning  work  was,  in 
the  same  sense,  in  behalf  of  all  men,  has  ever  been  a  prominent 
tenet  of  Cumberland  Presbyterian  theology.  That  Christ  died 
for  all  men,  that  God's  impartial  love  wills  the  salvation  of  all, 
that  the  Spirit  strives  with  all,  and  the  freedom  of  will  whereby 
it  is  in  him  who  hears  the  gospel  to  determine  whether  he  will 
accept  it  or  will  reject  it,  are  great  themes  prominent  in  the 
preaching  of  the  first  Cumberland  Presbyterian  ministers,  and 
handled  by  them  with  great  force  of  logic  and  often  in  power 
and  demonstration  of  the  Spirit.  The  following  passage  from  a 
lecture  by  Dr.  Burrow,  delivered  while  he  was  a  professor  of 


302  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

theology  in  Bethel  College,  indicates  the  clear  and  positive 
manner  in  which  those  ministers  insisted  on  the  doctrine  of  a 
general  atonement : 

"  There  are  not  a  few  who,  while  they  agree  with  us  that 
Christ  suffered  and  died  in  our  room  and  stead — for  us  in  the 
full  and  true  sense  of  that  term — and  that  we  are  justified  and 
saved  alone  through  his  righteousness,  at  the  same  time  differ 
with  us  widely  as  to  the  extent  of  the  atonement.  For  while 
we  believe  that  Christ  died  for  all  in  the  same  sense  and  to  the 
same  extent,  there  are  many  who  hold  that  he  died  for  only  a 
part.  .  .  .  We  feel  well  assured  that  the  same  amount  of  Scrip- 
ture testimony  which  goes  to  prove  the  doctrine  of  the  atone- 
ment, and  that  Christ  died  for  sinners,  goes  with  equal  force  to 
prove  that  it  was  for  all.  .  .  .  One  truth  must  be  plain  to  impar- 
tial readers  of  the  Bible :  That  if  Christ  ever  did  bear  the  sins 
of  any  part  of  the  world  in  his  body  on  the  tree,  and  did  suffer 
and  die  in  their  room  and  stead,  he  did  the  very  same  for  the 
whole  world,  without  distinction,  partiality  or  respect  of  per- 
sons; and  we  may  confidently  rely  upon  it  as  being  the 
universal,  uncontradicted,  harmonious  testimony  of  God's  word, 
and  it  is  so  believed  and  taught  by  Cumberland  Presbyterians." 

From  The  Doctrines  of  Grace,  by  Rev.  Milton  Bird,  D.D.,  who 
wrote  copiously,  vigorously,  and  most  logically  on  the  doctrine 
of  the  atonement,  we  take  one  illustrative  passage :  "  The 
atonement  is  the  only  channel  through  which  man  receives  life 
and  favor  from  God.  If  so,  his  existence  and  the  mercies 
enjoyed  by  him  most  plainly  show  that  he  is  embraced  in  its 
gracious  provision.  The  whole  human  race  take  their  existence 
under  a  dispensation  of  mercy  ;  the  atonement  is  the  ground  of 
this  dispensation,  and  therefore  embraces  all  in  its  saving 
design.  The  atonement  is  not  a  provision  for  particular  per- 
sons chosen  out  of  the  general  mass  •  none  are  passed  by  and 
left  without  remedy  under  the  law,  to  inevitable  damnation.  In 
its  design,  a  door  of  hope  and  the  way  of  salvation  are  opened 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  303 

to  all  the  fallen  race  of  man ;  a  foundation  is  safely  and  firmly- 
laid  in  the  divine  law,  government,  and  perfections  for  the  for- 
giveness of  sins,  which  is  as  extensive  as  the  family  of  man. 
....  The  neglect  of  the  great  salvation  is  the  only  reason  why 
any  perish  in  their  sins." 

In  like  manner  did  Rev.  Finis  Ewing  with  great  power  and 
clearness  teach  that  Christ  died  in  the  same  sense  for  all  man- 
kind. Citing  John  iii.  16  in  support  of  his  view,  he  says,  "  I  am 
aware  that  some  explain  this  text  as  meaning  the  elect  world  ; 
but  such  explanation  is  unsound.  Let  us  paraphrase  the  pas- 
sage agreeably  to  that  explanation,  and  see  how  it  will  do : 
'  God  so  loved  the  elect,  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that 
whosoever  of  the  elect  believe,  should  not  perish,  etc. ;  conse- 
quently that  part  of  the  elect  world  that  do  not  believe  must 
perish.'  The  absurdity  of  this  will  at  once  appear."  "The 
very  commission  that  Christ  gave  his  disciples  implies,"  he  says, 
"  the  same  thing ;  *  Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the 
gospel  to  every  creature,'  etc.  '  He  that  believeth  and  is  bap- 
tized shall  be  saved;  and  he  that  believeth  not  shall  be  damned.' 
What !  damn  a  soul  for  not  believing  a  non-truth  !  Would  it 
not  be  a  non-truth  for  a  sinner  to  believe  in  Christ  if  he  had  not 
died  for  him?" 

It  is  among  the  recollections  of  the  writer's  boyhood  that 
Cumberland  Presbyterian  ministers  produced  in  Western  Penn- 
sylvania a  profound  impression  as  they  proclaimed  with  great 
earnestness  the  impartial  love  and  mercy  of  God,  and  that  he 
had  manifested  these  by  giving  his  Son  to  taste  death  alike  for 
all  men,  and  to  the  intent  that  all  might  turn  to  the  stronghold 
thus  available  for  all.  The  preaching  of  the  Presbyterian 
pulpit  of  the  locality  had  been  largely  about  "  decrees,"  "  pre- 
destination," and  "  election  ;  "  and  wherever  it  was  proclaimed 
gladly  did  the  people  hear  of  the  impartial  grace  of  God  which 
bringeth  salvation  and  has  appeared  in  behalf  of  all  men,  and 
many  were  they  who  found  in  the  messages  of  those  earnest 


3^4 


DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 


preachers  "  glad  tidings  of  great  joy  "  for  which  their  souls 
were  thirsting;  for  no  other  truths  can  so  inspire  men  with 
hope  or  so  move  them  to  gratitude  and  the  consecration  of  self 
to  God,  as  can  the  doctrine  of  God's  impartial  love  as  displaj'-ed, 
alike  in  behalf  of  Jews  and  Gentiles,  rich  and  poor,  high  and 
low,  through  the  gift  of  his  own  Son,  who  tasted  death,  the  one 
Redeemer  for  the  one  humanity,  that  whosoever  believeth 
should  not  perish  but  have  everlasting  life. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  stern — but  consistent,  we  must  say — 
Calvinistic  teaching  in  the  early  part  of  the  century,  may  be 
cited  this  passage  from  article  ix.  of  a  "  Declaration  and  Testi- 
mony "  which  the  Associate  Presbytery  of  Pennsylvania  "  found 
it  necessary  "  as  they  believed,  to  publish  "  for  the  doctrine  and 
order  of  the  Church  of  Christ :  Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  was  a 
representative  and  surety  for  the  elect  only,  he  died  for  them 
only,  and  for  none  else  in  an)'  respect ;  and  all  for  whom  he  died 
shall  infallibly  be  saved.  God  is  just  and  will  not  require 
double  payment  for  the  same  debt :  had  satisfaction  been  made 
by  Christ  for  the  sins  of  all  men,  none  would  have  perished 
under  the  curse ;  death,  the  wages  of  sin,  would  not  have  been 
due  to  any,  if  Christ  had  suffered  it  for  the  whole  human  race." 

About  half  a  century  earlier  the  Associate  Synod  of  Edin- 
burgh (Scotland),  "seeing  their  people  in  danger  of  being  led 
astray  by  fair  but  seducing  pretences,  did  in  a  few  propositions, 
state,  explain,  and  defend  the  Scripture  doctrine  concerning  the 
suretyship  and  death  of  Christ,  '  That  he  was  a  surety  for  the 
elect  only,  and  died  for  none  but  those  who  were  given  him  out 
of  the  world ;  that  his  intercession  is  for  the  elect  only,' "  etc. 
The  historian  tells  us  that  "on  this  occasion  one  minister 
belonging  to  the  synod  dissented  from  his  brethren  strongly, 
insisting  that  Christ  died,  in  some  sense,  for  all  mankind ;  though 
what  that  sense  was,  he  never  could  distinctly  tell."  It  is  added 
that,  as  "he  refused  to  forbear  teaching  such  an  opinion," 
though  "  earnestly  entreated,"  "  the  synod  found  no  other  way 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  305 

to  preserve  unity  of  doctrine,  but  by  deposing  him  from  the 
ministry  of  the  gospel,  which  they  accordingly  did." 

Whoever  will  set  out  with  the  proposition  of  an  eternal, 
unconditional  decree  of  election  and  reprobation,  will  find  him- 
self involved  in  hopeless  logical  contradictions  if  he  professes 
to  believe  the  doctrine  of  a  general  atonement ;  and  he  will  be 
found  saying  that  Christ  did  die  for  all,  and  he  did  not ;  that  the 
non-elect  can  receive  Christ,  and  that  they  can  not,  and  thus  on 
to  the  end. 

The  Cumberland  Presbj'terian  Church  has  found  a  glorious 
mission  in  proclaiming  the  impartial  love  of  God  as  manifested 
in  the  great  provision  whereby  whosoever  will  may  take  of  the 
water  of  life.  In  this  respect,  certainly,  our  denomination  has 
accomplished  a  good  work,  contributing  its  part  to  that  true 
progress  of  Christian  thought  away  from  the  frigidity  and 
fatality  of  Calvinism  into  the  clear  sunshine  of  the  Bible  doc- 
trine of  God's  love  for  all  mankind.  Nor  can  we  overestimate 
the  influence  or  the  benefit  of  such  progress  in  hastening  the 
recognition  of  the  great  brotherhood  of  humanitj^  as  the  ofi"- 
spring  of  one  loving  Father  of  all.  Objects  of  so  great  a  love, 
we  feel  within  us  a  constraining  power.  We  love  him  because 
he  first  loved  us.  As  we  receive  his  spirit,  so  a  new  power 
within  us  makes  us  workers  together  with  him,  and  so  through 
the  willing  subjects  of  his  grace  is  God  bearing  to  men  the 
message  of  his  love,  that  the  ends  of  the  earth  maj'  look  unto 
him  and  be  saved.  Nor  may  we  suppose  that  even  the  Christian 
has  yet  come  to  an  adequate  conception  of  the  measure  or  of 
the  constraining  power  of  divine  love, 

"  For  the  love  of  God  is  broader 

Than  the  measure  of  man's  mind ; 
And  the  heart  of  the  Eternal 
Is  most  wonderfull)'  kind." 

Two  great  facts  touching  the  Atonement  Cumberland  Presby- 
terians must  firmly  hold,  if  they  would  be  orthodox  as  tested  by 
the  Scriptures  and  by  the  teachings  of  our  fathers  : 
20 


3o6  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

1.  That  Christ,  as  a  L,amb  without  spot,  "by  sacrifice  of  him- 
self once  made,"  "  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world."  In  other 
words,  the  true  idea  of  Atonement  is  inseparable  from  the 
sufferings  and  death  of  Christ.  It  was  in  order  "  that  he  by  the 
grace  of  God  might  taste  death  for  every  one,"  that  he  was 
"  made  for  a  little  while  lower  than  the  angels  (Heb.  ii.  9). 
"  But  now  once,  in  the  end  of  the  ages,  he  has  been  manifested 
for  the  putting  away  of  sin  by  the  sacrifice  of  himself  (Heb.  ix. 
27).  "So  also  Christ,  having  been  once  offered  to  bear  the  sins 
of  many,  will,  to  those  who  look  for  him,  appear  a  second  time, 
without  sin,"  that  is,  "  without  being  a  sacrifice,  to  expiate  sin  " 
(Heb.  ix.  28).  "  In  which  will  we  have  been  sanctified,  through 
the  offering  of  the  body  of  Jesus  Christ  once  for  all " 
(Heb.  x.  10). 

2.  That  the  sufferings  and  death  of  Christ  are  expiatory  in 
their  relation  to  man's  redemption. 

By  this  proposition  is  meant,  not  that  the  atonement  was 
needful  to  render  God  merciful,  but  to  render  pardon  safe.  If 
we  are  to  believe  that  in  any  proper  sense  of  the  term,  God 
exercises  government  over  his  rational  creatures,  we  must 
believe  that  penalty  is  annexed  to  disobedience.  But  we  must 
remember  that  it  is  love  which  prompts  to  penalty  in  God's 
administration  over  his  moral  creatures.  Penalty  is  a  feature 
of  God's  administration  for  good,  without  which  feature  highest 
well-being  could  not  be  secured.  By  atonement^  then,  we  are  to 
understand  such  a  substitution  for  the  infliction  of  the  penalty 
upon  the  guilty  as  will  fully  as  well  secure  that  for  which  the 
divine  goodness  inflicts  penalties — the  highest  well-being  of  his 
universe  of  creatures  rational  and  sentient. 

The  Atonement  is,  on  one  side,  an  infinitely  efficacious 
expression  of  God's  disapprobation  of  sin,  and  of  the  de- 
structive nature  of  sin  in  his  moral  empire ;  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  of  God's  infinite  compassion  for  his  creatures  made  in  his 
own  image.     It  was  because  God   SO   loved   the   world,  that 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH,  307 

atonement  was  provided,  and  it  is  for  the  same  love  of  the 
happiness  of  his  creatures  that  God  can  not  forgive  sin  without 
an  expedient  that  will,  equally  well  with  the  infliction  of  the 
penalty  of  the  law,  promote  obedience,  moral  order,  and  happi- 
ness. To  promote  happiness,  God's  empire  of  rational  creatures 
was  spoken  into  being.  These  principles  are  clearly  applicable 
in  the  family  and  in  the  state — which  are  but  phases  and  modes 
of  his  government  over  rational  creatures — and  there  seems  no 
valid  reason  why  we  may  not  say  that  they  are  applicable 
throughout  his  vast  empire  of  moral  agents.  While  we  are 
taught  that  it  is  for  every  member  of  the  human  race  that 
Christ,  by  the  grace  of  God,  tasted  death,  we  may  reasonably 
suppose  that  this  display  of  infinite  compassion  and  his  atoning 
work  make  a  deep  and  lasting  impression  for  good  throughout 
the  moral  universe,  and  thus  is  of  boundless  value  in  promoting 
the  end  for  which  God  creates  and  governs  subjects  of  moral 
law. 

The  foregoing  view  of  the  subject  is  perfectlj^  consistent  with 
the  doctrine  of  atonement  for  all  men,  while  it  does  not  involve 
us,  on  the  one  hand,  in  the  error  of  Universalism,  nor,  on  the 
other,  shut  us  up  to  the  Calvinistic  dilemma  of  the  partial  exer- 
cise of  God's  mercy  in  a  limited  atonement,  or  of  an  atonement 
for  that  part  of  humanity  which  his  mercy  passed  by  and 
ordained  to  wrath. 

The  remark  of  Ralph  Wardlow  has  great  force  :  "  The  entire 
word  of  God  bears  us  out  in  believing  it  to  have  been  atone- 
ment by  sacrifice — in  other  words,  by  substitution  and  vicarious 
suffering.  Of  this  the  Bible  is  full.  To  the  mind  that  can  con- 
trive, to  its  own  satisfaction,  to  strip  the  Bible  of  the  doctrine 
of  atonement  by  vicarious  suffering,  it  might,  in  my  apprehen- 
sion, be  safely  pronounced  impossible  to  convey  a  divine  dis- 
covery at  all." 

It  seems  to  the  writer  to  be  of  the  utmost  importance  that  as 
Cumberland  Presbyterians  we  adhere  to  the  teachings  of  the 


3o8  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

fathers  of  the  Church  on  this  vital  doctrine  of  atonement.  This 
ground  abandoned,  we  are  wanderers  without  compass,  liable  to 
divisions  and  strifes  engendered  by  dogmas  which  heterodoxy 
substitutes  for  God's  revealed  truth.  The  passage  in  Heb.  ix.  24- 
28,  and  its  connections,  as  indeed  the  whole  espistle,  seem  to 
leave  no  ground  for  doubting  that  the  sufferings  and  death  of 
Christ  are,  according  to  the  Scriptures,  the  indispensable  condi- 
tion of  man's  deliverance  from  the  penal  consequences  of  sin : 
"  But  now  once,  in  the  end  of  the  ages,  hath  he  (Christ)  appeared 
to  do  away  sin  by  the  sacrifice  of  himself.  And  as  it  is 
appointed  unto  men  once  to  die,  but  after  this  the  judgment,  so 
Christ  was  once  offered  to  bear  the  sins  of  many  (Isa.  liii.  12),  and 
unto  them  that  look  for  him  shall  he  appear  a  second  time  with- 
out sin  unto  salvation."  The  last  clause,  "  and  unto  them  that 
look  for  him,"  etc.,  signifies,  as  the  best  expositors  agree,  that 
Christ  "  will  not  appear  as  a  piacular  victim  to  expiate  sin,''  etc. 
The  drift  of  this  very  important  passage  is  faithfully  stated,  it 
seems  to  us,  in  the  following  comment  by  Moses  Stuart :  "  It  is 
plain  that  the  sense  attached  in  Scripture  to  bearing  any  one's 
sins  is  the  actual  suffering  of  the  consequences  due  to  sin.  .  .  . 
The  sentiment,  then,  is,  that  Jesus  by  his  death  endured  the 
penal  consequences  of  sin.  By  which,  however,  we  are  not  to 
understand  that  the  sufferings  of  our  Redeemer  were  in  all 
respects  an  exact  equivalent ;  but,  that  vicarious  suffering  is 
here  designated  seems  to  be  an  unavoidable  conclusion,  both 
from  the  zis2is  loquendi  of  Scripture,  and  the  nature  of  the  argu- 
ment in  chapters  viii.,  ix." 

Atonement  was  not  through  Christ's  holiness  of  life,  or 
perfect  obedience  to  the  law  man  had  violated,  as  Anselm 
taught,  and  as  Hodge  seems  to  teach,  in  saying  that  Christ 
literally  fulfilled  the  covenant  of  works  in  the  stead  of  the  elect, 
but,  as  Paul  certainly  teaches,  it  is  in  the  death  of  Christ  we  find 
the  fulfillment  of  the  sacrificial  types,  the  great  expiation 
whereby  God  can  be  just  in  the  justification  of  the  sinner  who 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  309 

repents  and  returns,  through  regenerating  grace,  to  holiness  of 
life.  Christ's  death  is  not  a  ransom  paid  to  the  devil,  as 
Gregory  taught,  for  man's  release.  That  wondrous  spectacle, 
Jesus  suffering,  dying  on  Calvary,  is  atonement  because  a 
display  to  men  and  to  angels,  of  God's  holy  displeasure  at  sin 
and  of  his  infinite  regard  for  the  ends  of  his  moral  government 
over  rational  creatures.  Atonement  does  not  make  God  mer- 
ciful, but  it  renders  it  morally  possible  for  God,  consistently 
with  the  ends  of  his  righteous  government,  to  exercise  mercy 
by  pardoning  the  transgressor  on  condition  of  repentance  and 
return  to  obedience.  It  saves  no  human  being  absolutely,  but 
does  make  all  men  prisoners  of  hope  through  him  who  is  the  pro- 
pitiation for  all.  Through  this  Atonement  mercy  and  salvation 
are  for  all,  as  the  air  and  the  sunshine  are  for  all,  and  the  regen- 
erating and  sanctifying  influences  needed  for  man's  restoration 
to  life  and  holiness  flow  from  and  accompany  this  gracious  dis- 
pensation through  Atonement.  In  its  inception,  its  execution, 
its  application,  it  is  all  of  grace.  As  heaven  opened  its  glories 
to  the  beloved  disciple  when  exiled  on  rocky  Patmos,  he  saw 
Jesus  standing  before  the  throne  as  a  "lamb  newl}'^  slain,"  and 
heard  ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand  of  the  redeemed,  in 
sounds  louder  than  might}'  waters,  chanting,  "  Blessing,  and 
honor,  and  glory,  and  power  unto  him  that  sitteth  on  the  throne, 
and  unto  the  L,amb  forever  and  ever,"  and  the  burden  of  "the 
new  song"  was,  "Thou- art  worthy  to  take  the  book,  and  to 
open  the  seals  thereof;  for  thou  wast  slain,  and  hast  redeemed 
us  to  God  by  thy  blood  out  of  every  kindred  and  tongue  and 
people  and  nation." 


3IO 


DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE    GENIUS    OP    THE    CUMBERLAND    PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH. 

^npHIS  volume  having  already  outgrown  the  limits  designed 
"*■  by  those  at  whose  request  it  has  been  written,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  omit  the  discussion  of  "  Repentance  Unto  Life," 
"Saving  Faith,"  "  Justification,"  and  a  few  other  topics  which, 
like  the  ones  named,  are  essential  parts  of  a  system  setting  forth 
the  way  of  salvation  to  man  through  the  person  and  work  of  a 
Redeemer.  For  the  same  reason  this  concluding  chapter  must 
be  entirely  briefer  than  would  otherwise  have  been  consistent 
with  the  interest  and  importance  of  the  subject  to  which  it 
relates. 

The  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church,  like  the  kingdom  of 
God  of  which  it  claims  to  be  a  part,  came  not  with  "  observa- 
tion." It  did  not  march  out  of  a  great  denomination  a  powerful 
exodus  numbering  thousands,  with  leaders,  discipline,  and  ample 
equipments.  On  the  contrary  its  humble  origin  was  the  organi- 
zation of  a  presbytery  by  three  ministers  little  known  to  the 
world,  but  men  of  earnest  piety,  and  of  deep  convictions  of  duty 
in  relation  to  teaching  and  defending  what  they  believed  to  be 
God's  truth.  The  work  thus  humbly  begun  has,  through  the 
blessing  of  God,  as  we  must  believe,  continually  enlarged, 
holding  on  its  way  through  a  desolating  war,  and  standing  forth 
to-day,  at  the  end  of  eightj^  years,  as  a  recognized  branch  of  the 
Presbyterian  family  of  Churches,  with  a  membership  of  one 
hundred  and  sixty-five  thousand,  an  earnest  ministry,  colleges, 
missions,  periodicals,  publishing  house,  and  other  agencies  of  an 
aggressive  denomination.     Surely,  an  inquiry  into  the  character- 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  3  1 1 

istics  of  a  body  that  has,  in  a  period  comparatively  so  short, 
achieved  results  comparatively  so  great,  could  not  prove  unin- 
teresting or  unprofitable.  What  account,  then,  may  we  truth- 
fully give  of  this  member  of  the  Presbyterian  family?  First, 
then,  to  correct  some  false  statements  made  through  lack  of 
information  or  of  a  sense  of  justice,  we  believe  that  it  may  be 
truthfully  said  that  we  are  : 

1.  Not  charactered  by  "  doctrinal  unsoundness."  Of  this 
charge,  repeated  throughout  our  history,  we  plead  not  guilty, 
and  appeal  to  our  doctrinal  symbols  in  justification  of  the  plea. 
It  is  at  least  circumstantial  evidence  of  our  innocence,  that 
thousands  of  the  strongest  divines  and  laymen  in  the  Presbyte- 
rian Church  are  to-day  demanding  just  such  a  modification  of 
the  Westminster  Confession  as  will  substantially  harmonize 
with  ours. 

2.  Not  a  Presbyterian  Church  that  "  believes  in  an  uneducated 
ministry."  This  accusation,  so  often  made  in  the  way  of  dis- 
paragement, should  be  sufl&ciently  refuted,  to  the  satisfaction  of 
all  candid  persons,  by  the  numerous  colleges,  universities,  and 
other  institutions  of  learning  our  Church  has  founded  and  is 
supporting.  We  do  hold  that  there  are  circumstances  under 
which  it  may  be  right  and  even  very  needful,  to  license  men 
who  have  not  had  what  is  usually  meant  by  a  collegiate  educa- 
tion. The  founders  of  the  Church  believed  that  they  lived  at  a 
time  when  such  a  step  was  justified  by  the  wants  of  the  section 
of  country  in  which  they  labored.  Their  policy  with  respect  to 
this  matter  has  received  the  sanction  of  not  a  few  of  the  wisest 
and  best  men  of  the  mother  Church.  In  the  great  demand  for 
preaching  in  the  revival  of  1800,  our  fathers  saw  and  deeply  felt 
only  what  Rev.  Dr.  Cuyler  recently  declared  so  well  in  the 
columns  of  the  Eva?igeHst,  when  he  said  :  "  Three  truths  are  as 
solid  and  indisputable  as  the  rocks  of  yonder  mountain.  First, 
we  must  have  more  preachers  of  the  gospel  of  salvation. 
Second,  when  the  Holy  Spirit  moves  a  Christian  man  to  preach 


312         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

Christ  Jesus  we  must  not  tie  him  fast  with  the  ecclesiastical  red 
tape.  Third,  when  nihiisters  enoiigh  can  not  be  got  mto  the  pulpit 
by  the  long  regulation  roads  we  must  open  shorter  roads ^ 

3.  Not  a  band  of  ecclesiastical  warriors,  or  Ishmaelites  with 
our  hands  against  all  other  denominations.  In  fact  it  is  barely 
possible  that  any  Church  is  more  ready  than  are  Cumberland 
Presbyterians  to  fraternize  cordially  with  all  other  evangelical 
bodies.  In  this  respect  our  spirit  is  truly  catholic  and  magnani- 
mous. The  circumstances  of  its  origin  imposed  on  the  founders 
of  the  denomination  the  necessity  of  much  doctrinal  preaching, 
and  of  frequently  explaining  wherein  we  differ  from  Calvinists 
on  one  side  and  from  Arminians  on  the  other.  Accused  of 
"  doctrinal  unsoundness,"  portrayed  in  books  as  holding  "  tenets 
congenial  to  men  in  the  flesh,"  and  ridiculed  as  being  "  in  favor 
of  an  ignorant  ministr)^"  what  else  could  our  ministry  have 
done  consistently  with  legitimate  self-defense  and  with  their 
obligations  to  what  they  believed  God's  truth  and  the  path  of 
duty,  but  to  explain  and  defend  the  doctrines  and  aims  of  the 
new  denomination  to  which  they  gave  their  labors  with  a  zeal 
that  bordered  on  inspiration.  They  did  not  believe,  nor  do  we 
to-day  believe,  that  they  were  disputing  about  doctrinal  differ- 
ences in  themselves  insignificant  and  practically  of  no  conse- 
quence, but  that  they  were  condemning  pernicious  error,  and 
contending  for  great  verities  vitally  related  to  the  salvation  of 
men.  That  there  is  to-day  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  a  large 
party  who  reject  the  teaching  of  the  Westminster  Confession  on 
all  the  points  on  which  Cumberland  Presbyterians  reject  it,  and 
that  they  consider  the  changes  demanded  as  of  the  gravest 
importance,  the  pending  discussion  of  the  question  of  "  revis- 
ion "  has  most  clearly  and  fully  demonstrated. 

Out  of  the  vast  amount  of  material  from  which  we  could 
draw  proofs  of  the  last  assertion  in  the  foregoing  section,  we 
select  the  following  report  of  the  action  of  the  Rochester  Pres- 
byter, as  it  was  given  through  the  press  in  the  autumn  of  1891, 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH. 


3^3 


More  complete  indorsement  or  more  triumphant  vindication 
of  the  preaching  and  polity  of  our  fathers  would  be  scarcely- 
possible.  History  certainly  does  repeat.  Could  Finis  Ewing, 
Robert  Donnell,  John  Morgan,  and  their  compeers,  from  whose 
lips  thousands  received  with  great  joy  the  message  of  God's 
impartial  love,  now  return  to  the  Church  militant,  they  would 
certainly  be  alike  amazed  and  delighted  to  find  how  nearl}-  a 
great  body  of  divines  and  laymen  of  the  mother  Church  are 
asserting  the  very  truths  and  using  the  very  words  for  which 
they  themselves  were  half  a  century  ago  called  dangerous 
errorists.  A  few  sentences  being  omitted  for  the  sake  of 
brevity,  the  action  of  the  Presbytery  is  as  follows  : 

"  The  principal  change  proposed  and  desired  by  this  Presby- 
tery is  in  connection  with  section  7,  which  declares  that  '  the 
rest  of  mankind  God  was  pleased  to  pass  by,  and  to  ordain  to 
dishonor  and  wrath.'  Some  changes  in  this  section  have  been 
made  by  the  committee,  but  its  most  objectionable  feature  still 
remains.  The  words,  '  God  was  pleased  to  pass  by  '  have  been 
changed  for,  *  God  was  pleased  not  to  elect.'  ....  This  can  be 
regarded  only  as  an  attempt  to  cast  a  softening  veil  over  the 
horrible  doctrine  of  preterition.  It  was  held  and  voted,  therefore, 
that  the  whole  of  this  seventh  section,  both  in  its  original  and 
in  its  altered  form,  be  omitted  from  the  Confession  of  Faith,  for 
the  following  reasons:  i.  Because  it  is  the  one  dark  and  dread- 
ful item  against  which  more  than  a  hundred  presbyteries  lifted 
their  united  voices.  2.  Because  it  is  a  doctrine  nowhere  taught 
in  the  Scriptures,  and  a  doctrine  repudiated  by  some  of  the  fore- 
most authorities  in  our  denomination,  such  as  Drs.  Crosby,  Van 
Dyke,  and  A.  A.  Hodge,  the  last  pronouncing  it  '  tmscriptural 
and  immoral.^  3.  Because  it  is  a  doctrine  no  one  preaches  and 
no  one  can  preach  either  to  the  edification  of  sai7its  or  sinners.  .  .  . 
4.  Because  it  contradicts  the  sacred  word,  aye,  and  the  solemn 
oath  of  Almighty  God.  The  section  asserts  that  *  God  was 
pleased  to  ordain  to  dishonor  and  wrath  '  a  multitude  of  his 


314         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

creatures ;  but  God  himself  lifts  up  his  voice  and  swears,  'As  I 
live  I  have  no  pleasure  in  the  death  of  the  wicked.'  5.  Because 
it  is  contrary  to  the  tenor  and  spirit  of  the  gospel  throughout, 
which  declares,  in  divers  manners  and  sundry  places,  that  God 
would  have  all  men  to  come  to  a  knowledge  of  the  truth  and  be 
saved.  6.  Because  it  ttirns  to  hollow  mockery  the  free  and  zmiver- 
sal  offer  of  salvation  as  set  forth  in  the  reviser's  new  chapter  on 
that  subject,  7.  Because,  in  the  estimation  of  multitudes  of 
pious  and  intelligent  people,  it  belies  the  tears  of  the  adorable 
Savior,  which,  in  the  deep  compassion  of  his  soul,  he  shed  over 
the  most  incorrigible  of  sinners,  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem. 

In  view  of  all  these  facts  the  presbytery  voted  to  recommend 
the  omission  of  this  seventh  section,  both  in  its  original  and 
revised  form,  and  the  adoption  of  the  following  as  a  substitute 
for  it : 

The  decrees  of  God  concerning  all  mankind,  are  to  be  so 
construed  as  to  be  in  harmony  with  these  declarations  of 
Scripture,  namely  :  that  Christ  is  the  propitiation  for  the  si?is  of 
the  whole  world,  and  that  God  is  not  williyig  that  any  should 
perish,  but  that  all  should  come  to  repentance  and  live. 

"  This  presbytery  further  recommends  that  in  chapter  6,  sec- 
tion 2,  the  statement  "  defiled  in  all  the  faculties  and  parts  of 
soul  and  body"  should  be  modified.  Also  that  in  section  3  of 
the  same  chapter,  the  clause  "  the  guilt  of  this  sin  was 
imputed  "  should  be  omitted,  for  the  following  reasons:  that  the 
guilt  of  Adam's  act  could  not  in  reason  or  in  righteousness  be 
laid  to  the  charge  of  his  children,  who  were  3^et  unborn;  that  to 
say  "  we  all  sinned  in  Adam  "  is  to  say  what  is  bitterly  wiintelli- 
^ible  and  inconceivable :  that  we  can  no  more  become  subjects  of 
guilt  before  we  have  existence  than  we  can  become  subjects 
of  reward  or  punishment  before  we  have  existence ;  and  that 
the  whole  idea  is  contrary  to  natural  justice  and  to  the  express 
decision  of  Scripture,  '  The  son  shall  not  bear  the  iniquity  of 
the  father.'" 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH. 


3^5 


The  following  sentiments  from  the  pen  of  Rev.  S.  G.  Burney, 
D.D.,  LL.D.,  the  venerable  professor  of  Systematic  Theology  in 
our  university  at  Lebanon,  Tenn.,  states  his  view  of  the  relation 
of  our  theology  to  other  systems  : 

"  I  think  our  theology'  is  a  distinct  system  in  itself.  It  is  not 
intermediate  in  the  sense  that  it  consists  in  part  of  Calvinistic, 
and  in  part  of  Arminian  tenets.  It  is  intermediate  in  the  sense 
that  it  avoids  the  extreme  mo7iergism  of  the  former,  and  the  ex- 
treme synergism  of  the  latter.  These  views  are  indicated  in  the 
40th  section  of  our  Confession  of  Faith.  Our  people  have 
always  given  more  prominence  to  the  doctrine  of  regeneration, 
than  any  other  denomination  in  this  country.  They  have  also 
urged  with  more  emphasis  than  others  the  necessity  of  trusting 
in  Christ,  rather  than  in  creeds,  the  sacraments,  ritualistic 
observances,  etc." 

As  our  denomination  is  locally  a  Western  and  a  Southern 
Church,  we  must  look  to  those  sections  for  information  respect- 
ing the  labors  and  the  spirit  of  the  generation  of  men  now 
passed  away.  In  a  recent  article  on  the  "  Effect  of  the  Early 
Preaching  ajid  Life  of  Our  Church  Upon  the  Religious  Interests 
of  the  World,"  Rev.  E.  P.  Henderson,  D.D.,  who  himself  had 
extensive  personal  knowledge  of  that  early  preaching  and  life 
of  our  Church,  states  a  number  of  facts  highly  interesting  in 
themselves,  and  illustrative  of  the  subject  under  review.  He 
informs  us  that  "  Drs.  Blackburn  and  Nelson,  and  Rev.  James 
Gallagher  (Presbyterian  ministers)  have  left  written  testimony 
in  favor  of  our  preachers  and  their  work,"  and  cites  from  Mr. 
Gallagher's  Western  Sketch-Book  the  following  passage  : 

"There  are  among  them  many  strong  men;  workmen  that 
need  not  be  ashamed.  And  their  blessed  Master  has  been  with 
them  in  every  part  of  that  wide  field  where  they  have  labored, 
and  has  made  his  gospel  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to 
many  thousand  believing  souls.  From  my  inmost  soul  I  honor 
those  men,  and  I  will  speak  of  it  in  the  presence  of  the  Church 


3l6         DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS  OF  THE 

of  my  God.  I  have  no  hesitation  in  declaring  my  belief  that  dur- 
ing the  last  forty  years  no  body  of  ministers  in  America,  or  in  the 
world,  have  preached  so  much  good,  efficient  preaching,  and 
received  such  small  compensation  (financially).  That  Church 
now  stands  before  heaven  and  earth  a  monument  of  God's  great 
work  in  the  revival  of  1800." 

The  following  is  cited  by  Mr.  Henderson,  the  author  of  the 
many  "  historical  facts  "  illustrative  of  that  wonderful  "  power 
of  God  unto  salvation  "  exhibited  by  the  gospel  as  preached  by 
men  whose  like  would  seem  not  to  be  found  to-day  : 

"  Rev.  James  Bowman,  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  seeing  the 
wonderful  results  of  camp-meetings  among  the  Cumberland 
Presbyterians,  resolved  to  hold  a  camp-meeting  in  his  congrega- 
tion. But  his  brethren  in  his  presbytery  were  nearly  all  on  the 
old  side,  and  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  camp-meetings. 
The  few  favorable  to  the  revival  had  other  engagements.  Bow- 
man could  get  no  help.  The  ecclesiastical  authorities  of  the 
mother  Church  had  forbidden  its  people  either  to  recognize  the 
preachers  of  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church,  or  to  com- 
mune with  its  members.  Notwithstanding  this,  Mr.  Bowman 
invited  Rev.  J.  B.  Porter  to  assist  him  at  his  camp-meeting. 
This  was  a  new  departure.  Porter  agreed  to  assist  on  two  con- 
ditions :  First,  that  he  should  be  allowed  to  preach  his  own 
doctrine.  Second,  that  there  should  be  no  tokens  used  at  the 
communion  service,  but  that  all  Christians  be  allowed  to  par- 
ticipate. His  conditions  were  accepted.  .  .  .  While  Porter 
preached  from  the  text,  '  Turn,  ye  prisoners  of  hope,'  the 
mighty  power  of  God  swept  over  the  vast  assembly ;  sinners 
fell  like  men  slain  in  battle.  The  meeting  was  protracted  from 
day  to  day,  until  there  were  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  pro- 
fessions. Fifteen  of  the  converts  became  ministers  of  the 
gospel." 

When  so  much  of  interest  in  this  connection  might  be  said,  it 
is  occasion  for  regret  that  we  have  space  for  so  little.     Having 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  317 

Spent  his  life  on  the  very  border  of  the  Church,  and  coming  into 
the  Church,  though  in  his  youth,  quite  after  its  introduction 
into  Pennsylvania,  the  writer  felt  the  need  of  assistance,  in  this 
part  of  the  work,  from  those  better  situated  to  form  a  correct 
judgment,  and  hence,  by  personal  interviews  and  by  corre- 
spondence, has  endeavored  to  arrive  at  the  true  spirit  of  the 
Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church,  and  to  learn  what  beside  it 
may  possess  as  entitling  it  to  the  claims  of  individuality  among 
the  Protestant  bodies  of  America.  While  other  kind  responses 
must  be  omitted,  we  give  place  to  the  following  scheme  from 
J.  L.  Goodknight,  D.D.,  a  minister  of  wide  observation  in  rela- 
tion to  the  affairs  of  the  Church,  and  one  born  and  reared  in 
its  bosom : 

"the   genius    of   CUMBERLAND   PRESBYTERIANISM. 

"  I.  The  denomination  of  the  countr}'  masses,  by  the  country' 
masses,  and  for  the  country  masses.  So  far  it  has  not  been  a 
denomination  of  the  cities,  by  the  cities,  for  the  cities.  The 
phenomenal  grovilih  and  truth  disseminating  power  have  been 
largely  the  result  of  its  touch  with  the  rural  population.  The 
men  born  and  brought  up  on  the  farms  and  in  country  towns 
have  controlled  and  do  yet  control  the  mercantile  pursuits  and 
thought  and  legislation  of  the  United  States. 

"2.  The  denomination  of  a  free  gospel— without  money  and 
without  price.  No  other  ministry  has  done  as  much  gospel 
work  for  so  little  financial  pay  or  temporal  advantage,  as  have 
Cumberland  Presbyterian  ministers.  The  same  with  equal 
truthfulness  may  be  said  of  the  men  and  women  who  have  given 
themselves  to  the  educational  work  of  this  denomination. 

"  3.  No  denomination  has  kept  more  in  touch  and  sympathy 
with  the  changing  conditions  of  moral  advance  or  has  done 
more  proportionally  to  promote  it.  It  has  led  in  such  advance 
moral  reforms  in  the  true  Pauline  spirit.  The  faith  of  the 
denomination   has  been,  that  when   society  is  truly  saturated 


3l8  DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS. 

with   gospel   teachings   and    principles,   then   all   wrongs    and 
iniquities  will  be  and  must  be  righted. 

"  4.  The  denomination  has  shown  great  power  and  capability 
of  advance  and  of  adaptation  to  the  growing  demands  and  needs 
of  its  own  people,  and  the  peoples  in  whose  midst  it  has  done 
and  does  its  work. 

"  5.  Its  flexibility  and  adaptability  have  made  it  peculiarly  the 
denomination  molding  and  molded  to  the  genius  of  the  United 
States  and  her  institutions.  It  is  the  child  of  the  conditions  and 
needs  of  the  United  States  Republic  ;  and  so  has  developed  along 
the  lines  of  the  polity  and  policy  of  our  distinctive  Americanism. 

"  6.  The  denomination  has  been  eminently  apostolic  in  its 
methods  of  home  mission  work.  Its  evangelists  have  gone 
everywhere  preaching  the  gospel  at  their  own  charges.  No 
denomination  has  contributed  more  to  the  upbuilding  of  other 
denominations  than  Cumberland  Presbyterianism.  This  was 
especially  so  in  the  early  history  of  the  denomination,  when  its 
evangelists  cared  more  for,  and  especially  emphasized,  the 
saving  of  the  people,  rather  than  the  organization  of  new  con- 
gregations or  the  propagation  of  their  own  peculiar  ism. 

"7.  This  denomination  is  peculiarly  the  John  Baptist  among 
denominations,  crying :  Prepare  ye  the  waj'  and  make  plain 
paths,  so  that  the  creeds  of  modern  Christendom  shall  be  in 
harmony  with  the  Bible,  rather  than  with  a  system  of  logic  or 
of  philosophy.  The  denomination  has  been  the  pioneer  of 
creed  revision  in  modern  times.  It  is  the  first  denomination 
since  the  apostolic  daj^s,  whose  formulated  creed  is  based  upon 
pure  Bible  teaching.  The  whole  Protestant  Christian  world  is 
drifting  toward  its  formulated  doctrinal  creed  as  interpreted  in 
harmony  with  vicarious  atonement  and  the  universality  of  the 
gospel  provision. 

"8.  It  is  capable  inherently  of  indefinite  expansion  and 
growth.  Its  essential  gospel  principles  are  those  which  are 
sooner  or  later  to  permeate  the  world  wide  Protestantism." 


CUMBERLAND  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  319 

If  Cumberland  Presbyterians  can  not  claim  the  distinction  of 
leading  the  way,  they  are  certainly  among  the  foremost  denomi- 
nations in  the  recognition  of  the  obligation  of  the  Church  to- 
ward moral  reforms.  The  great  questions  of  to-day  which  so 
vitally  affect  the  interests  alike  of  society  and  of  the  Church, 
and  the  numerous  deliverances  by  ecclesiastical  courts,  pertain- 
ing to  these  questions,  practically  illustrate  our  meaning.  As  a 
leading  religious  journal  recently  expressed  it,  "Jesus  Christ 
came  into  the  world  not  merely  to  save  individuals  for  future 
felicity,  from  a  present  hopeless  wreck,  but  to  revolutionize  and 
reorganize  society."  "  The  Church  is  passing,"  says  the  journal, 
"  from  the  one  theology' to  the  other."  It  is  in  this  awakening, 
and  in  this  transition  of  the  Church  from  the  narrow  conceptions 
of  the  past  as  to  the  functions  of  Christianity,  with  the  quickening 
of  the  Christian  conscience  in  relation  to  the  public  welfare,  that 
is  to  be  found  a  guarantee  of  the  future  well-being  of  society, 
the  nation,  and  the  Church  itself. 

According  to  its  spirit,  its  teachings,  and  its  declared  mission, 
Christianit}'  lays  the  ax  at  the  root  of  every  tree  which  brings 
not  forth  good  fruit,  whether  such  tree  be  found  in  social  cus- 
toms, political  creeds,  civil  codes,  or  false  systems  of  religion. 
Among  these  evil  trees,  and  greatest  of  all,  is  the  "  all-blasting 
upas  "  of  the  drink  trafl&c,  which  "  rains  its  plagues  on  men  like 
dew,"  corrupts  legislation,  and  like  a  very  Antichrist  obstructs 
the  work  of  the  Church.  The  greatest  and  the  most  needed 
awakening  that  can  come  to  the  clergy  and  the  laity  of  the 
Church  of  to-day  is  that  of  an  aroused  conscience  in  relation  to  the 
Christian's  duty  of  using  his  means,  his  personal  influence,  and 
his  prerogatives  as  a  citizen  for  the  removal  of  this  and  other 
great  evils  tolerated  and  protected  by  legislation,  but  which,  as 
the  Bible  expressly  declares,  the  Son  of  God  was  manifested  to 
destroy.  If  in  these  closing  paragraphs  we  may  express  a  great 
and  most  earnest  hope  respecting  our  Church,  it  is  that,  next  to 
holding  firmly  to  its  sound  doctrinal  formula,  it  may  be  awak- 


320 


DOCTRINES  AND  GENIUS. 


ened  to  a  sense  of  its  obligation  to  the  great  moral  movements 
which  ameliorate  the  conditions  of  society  and  open  the  way  for 
the  coming  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  The  Church  will  not  in- 
strumentally  have  achieved  the  mission  for  which  it  was  organ- 
ized, and  for  which  Christ  came  into  the  world,  until  it  shall 
have  so  imbued  all  human  institutions  with  his  teachings  that 
the  government  shall  be  upon  his  shoulders,  instead  of  being,  as 
at  present  it  so  largely  is,  upon  the  shoulders  of  the  evil  one. 
Born  herself  because  of  a  needed  reform  in  theological  teach- 
ing, and  from  the  very  beginning  adopting  a  policy  required  by 
the  needs  of  the  masses  hungry  for  the  bread  of  life,  the  Cum- 
berland Presbyterian  Church  should,  through  an  untrammeled 
pulpit,  an  earnest  and  consecrated  ministry,  and  a  well-instructed 
and  devoted  membership,  rise  in  its  spiritual  power  to  the  meas- 
ure of  the  demands  on  it  in  this  crisis  of  both  Church  and  State. 
Its  past  success  and  its  present  condition  justif}^  the  pleasing 
assurance  that  the  Church  will  come  to  the  close  of  its  first  cen- 
tury in  the  full  tide  of  prosperity,  and  enter  upon  the  second 
century  with  resources  of  men  and  means  and  institutions,  which, 
through  the  blessing  of  its  great  Head,  will  secure  for  it  an  hon- 
ored place  among  divinely  appointed  agencies  for  the  world's 
salvation. 

"  Round  her  habitation  hovering 

See  the  cloud  and  fire  appear, 
Eor  a  glory  and  a  covering, 

Showing  that  the  Lord  is  near." 


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